History
In 1909, the Radium Institute was created for Marie Curie, winner of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. The Curie Foundation, created in 1920, was recognized as being of public utility the following year. The Institut du Radium and the Fondation Curie merged in 1970 to form the Institut Curie. A key player in the fight against cancer, the Institut Curie now combines an internationally-renowned research center with a state-of-the-art hospital complex that takes care of patients suffering from cancer, including the rarest cancers. Located on three sites (Paris, Saint-Cloud and Orsay), the Institut Curie has more than 3,300 researchers, physicians and caregivers working on its three missions: care, research and teaching.
Profile
The palliative oncology department was founded in June 2005 by founding physician Dr Laure Copel, and is now directed by Dr Carole Bouleuc. They both are oncology boarded, with a second specialization in palliative care. The department formed through the vision of providing embedded supportive care for all cancer patients alongside their medical, surgical oncologists and radiation oncologists.
Supportive and palliative care should be delivered according these main tenets :
- patient and family-centered care
- timely and targetted care to meet supportive and palliative care need of patienst and relatives, with systematic screening associated with oncologists referral
- including a mutidisciplinary concertation and a coordination with home health care professionals
- for all cancer patients whatever the phase of the disease
Specialities
Breast cancer is the most frequent type of primitive tumors. But Curie Institute is also specialized for the treatment of the following cancer; lung, gastro-intestinal (colorectal and non colorectal), head and neck, gynecological, sarcoma, uveal melanoma, pediatric cancer and malignant hemopathy.
Palliative and Supportive Care
We have created in 2005 the department of supportive and palliative care, which brings together the following teams: psycho-oncologists, social workers, nutritionists and dieticians, physiotherapists, pain and palliative care nurse and physician.
Our department also includes: an integrative approach delivering mind and body techniques like hypnosis and sophrology; the therapeutic education unit; the adapted physical activity unit; the ethical commission
The palliative care unit has 2 main clinical activities :
- An outpatient palliative care clinical activity, with daily consultation and day hospital of palliative with 5 places a day.
- An inpatient palliative care clinical activity, with a mobile team daily involved in the management of advanced cancer patients or end-of-life care.
The palliative care physicians team conducts numerous clinical research projects and publication, as well as international collaborations.
Last update: March 2024