Pr Jean-Yves Blay

Professor of medical oncology at the University Claude Bernard Lyon I and the General Director of the Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon, France.

Prof. Blay received his medical degree from the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in 1990. He performed oncology and internal medicine training at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and at the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Paris. At the completion of his fellowship, he joined the staff of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Léon Bérard in Lyon. In 1994, he received a PhD from the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and became the head of the Cytokine and Cancer Unit within an INSERM research unit in 1996, now Team 11 of the INSERM U1052 of the CRCL.

He was the network director of the CONTICANET, a Network of Excellence funded by the 6th Framework Program of the European commission (www.conticanet.com), serves currently as project director for the EUROSARC project, and as president of the French Sarcoma Group (www.gsf-geto.org). He has served as vice chairman of both the Protocol Review Committee and the Translational Research Advisory Committee of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and also as the chairman of the Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group of EORTC. Between 2009 and 2012, he served as the president of EORTC and is currently serving as Past President. Prof. Blay is also head of the Reference Network for Sarcoma in France (French National Cancer Institute), a faculty member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Sarcoma group, and a board member of the French Society of Cancer (SFC).

Prof Blay’s research interests focus on clinical and basic research in sarcomas, the biology of breast carcinoma, and the relation between tumor microenvironment and malignant cells, to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of these diseases. Prof. Blay has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and numerous other abstracts and book chapters.