Professor Fabrice Barlesi becomes Gustave Roussy Medical Director

Villejuif, 13 january 2020

Professor Fabrice Barlesi becomes Gustave Roussy Medical Director

Professor Jean-Charles Soria took up his post as General Director of Gustave Roussy on 6th January and has appointed Professor Fabrice Barlesi as Medical Director of the Institute. The latter is a specialist in lung cancer, precision medicine and cancer immunology. He is a major contributor to research in the field of novel oncological therapies. As part of his new role at Gustave Roussy, he will be using his expertise to draw up the new 2021-2026 Hospital Plan and will lead implementation of its medical aspects. He is taking over from Professor Michel Ducreux who fully committed himself to this role over a period of nine years.  

Fabrice Barlesi is 50 years of age and Professor of Medicine at the University of Aix-Marseille. Up to now, he has been head of the Multidisciplinary Oncology and Innovative Therapies Department of the Nord Hospital in Marseille (Marseille Public Hospitals) and the Marseille Centre for Early Trials in Oncology (CLIP2) which were established by him. He holds a doctorate in Sciences and Management with methods of analysis of health care systems, together with an ESSEC (international business school) master’s degree in general hospital management.   

Professor Barlesi was also a co-founder of the Marseille Immunopôle French Immunology network, which aims to coordinate immunological expertise in the Aix-Marseille metropolitan area. In this context, he has organised PIONeeR (Investment in the future RHU 2017), the major international Hospital-University research project whose objective is to improve understanding of resistance to immunotherapy - anti-PD1(L1) – in lung cancer and help to prevent and overcome it. He was also vice-chair of the PACA (Provence, Alps and Côte d’Azur) Region Cancer Research Directorate.

Professor Barlesi is the author and co-author of some 300 articles in international journals and specialist publications. In 2018, the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) awarded him the prestigious Heine H. Hansen prize. He appears in the 2019 world list of most influential researchers (Highly cited researchers, Web of Science Group).

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