Charlotte Vaysse elected Toulousian of the Year 2025: recognition for research and innovation against breast cancer
5IPBS is very proud to congratulate Charlotte Vaysse, Professor of Medicine and Hospital Practitioner (PU-PH) at Toulouse University Hospital (CHU), elected Toulousian of the Year 2025.
This prestigious distinction honors her exceptional commitment to oncologic surgery, research, and teaching.
The first woman to become a university professor and hospital practitioner in oncologic surgery in Toulouse, Charlotte Vaysse is also a member of the French National Academy of Surgery. A specialist in the surgical treatment of breast cancer and its reconstruction, she is deeply involved in training the next generation of healthcare professionals.
On the clinical front, she is currently leading a national multicenter clinical trial focused on immediate breast reconstruction in inflammatory breast cancer. Her goal is to improve patients’ quality of life by allowing them, when medical conditions permit, to avoid the often long and painful wait before reconstruction.
“Offering immediate reconstruction is no small thing: the challenge is to help patients achieve better acceptance of the disease and of themselves, a real sense of well-being,” she emphasizes.
Beyond the operating room, Charlotte Vaysse is also deeply committed to research. At IPBS, within Professor Catherine Muller’s team, she works on the links between obesity and breast cancer by studying fatty-acid exchanges between adipocytes and tumor cells using human tumor biopsies (INCa PAIR Obesity 2023 project). This approach, centered on the tumor microenvironment, is essential for better understanding the mechanisms of cancer progression.
In her speech, Charlotte Vaysse stressed that this distinction goes far beyond her as an individual:
“Above all, it shines a spotlight on breast cancer, which affects one in eight women. It is a major public-health issue.”
She also paid tribute to the patients, “the true everyday fighters”, as well as to the medical, paramedical, and administrative teams at Toulouse University Hospital, and to her fellow researchers at IPBS.
Finally, this recognition also highlights the role of women in academic hospital careers in surgery, who are still too few in key positions: “We are still fighting to ensure that women can access these responsibilities.”
The entire IPBS community extends its warmest congratulations to Charlotte Vaysse for this distinction, which honors clinical care, research, teaching—and our institute as a whole.