Institut Gustave Roussy
OVERVIEW
Gustave Roussy is a leading comprehensive cancer centre situated in Villejuif, Paris. It has a long history of innovation in cancer treatment, particularly in radiation oncology, haematology and immunology.
The institute has its origins in 1921, when professor Gustave Roussy, a specialist in pathological anatomy, established the country’s first outpatient service for patients with cancer, at Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif. His intention from the outset was to combine patient care with research and teaching.
In 1925, the city’s authorities recognised the value of this work by creating the Paris Suburban Regional Cancer Centre next to Paul Brousse Hospital, appointing Gustave Roussy as its first director. After his death the centre was renamed Institut Gustave Roussy in his honour. In 1980 it moved to much larger premises nearby.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Gustave Roussy’s betatron and isotopes laboratory became an engine of progress in understanding and improving radiotherapy treatments, under the direction of Maurice Tubiana, who had been asked to build a department with collaboration between research and clinical medicine.
The institute also drove progress in immunology and chemotherapy, particularly after Georges Mathé ‒ who had performed the first successful allogeneic bone marrow transplant ‒ took over the haematology department in 1961. The impact of that work was amplified the following year when Mathé founded with other European oncology leaders the forerunner of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
Gustave Roussy has also played an important role in the development of immune checkpoint approaches to treating cancer. This includes the first cloning of the LAG3 gene in 1990 by the cellular immunology group in the department of clinical biology, headed by Frédéric Triebel and research on the role of the LAG3 protein in regulating antigen-specific T-cell responses.
| insert picture Gustave Roussy |
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