Endometriosis, a common gynecological disease that poisons women’s daily lives, has long remained under the news radar. But not among those of Marina Kvaskoff, who has dedicated her energy and her career to it. His determination to bring this pathology out of obscurity has now earned him the Science and Society Opecst Prize.
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Get endometriosis out of its rut!
“I chose epidemiology in the second year of my biology degree; This undoubtedly reflected my childhood curiosity about disease and its causes.” recalls Marina Kvaskoff, epidemiologist at the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (CESP) in Villejuif. Since then, his curiosity has not dried up, even as his research topics have evolved over the years.
The first was skin cancer. There she does her master’s and doctoral thesis, which she completes together with Australia and the Exposome and Inheritance team at the Gustave Roussy Center in Villejuif, where she still works today. “This team coordinates that E3N cohortwhich has accompanied 100,000 women since 1990, explains the researcher. That’s how I discovered endometriosis in 2005 during my master’s internship.”which is defined by the presence of tissue similar to the uterine lining outside the uterus, and “ their connections with the Melanoma subject to my French-Australian thesis. It is a very common disease, but one that we know very little about, even though it has a very strong impact on women. So I wanted to use my skills in epidemiology to understand it better. »
Defend women, on all fronts
With her thesis in 2009, Marina Kvaskoff completed her training at Harvard University in the USA with Stacey Missmer, pioneer in the field of endometriosis epidemiology and today president of the scientific society World Endometriosis Society. Then, thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship from the European Commission and various prizes and grants, the researcher continued her work between France, the United States and Australia until she landed a position as a researcher at Inserm in 2016. This is how she observes Das Certain childhood exposures – passive smoking, food deprivation, intense physical activity, etc. – increase the risk of endometriosis and shows in particular that it is linked to the risk of various types of cancer (skin, ovary). “During this time, I was also involved in the Femmes & Sciences association, as part of which I created a mentoring program for doctoral students at the University of Paris-Saclay.” adds the researcher, recognizing that she has always fought for women on all fronts. Sometimes difficult battles, because despite the support of Inserm, “The topic of endometriosis remained confidential: we only spoke about it once a year during the endometriosis. emphasizes the researcher. But since 2018, thanks to patient groups and celebrity expression, there has been real freedom of expression around periods. Today we talk about it every month! ». A spotlight that is synonymous with a boost for research.
The fight goes on!
In fact, Marina Kvaskoff started the endometriosis component of the participatory research cohort in 2019 Compared, which has almost 10,000 participants. Then, from 2022, the government announced its desire to establish the ambitious Epi-Endo program on the epidemiology of endometriosis, led by the researcher, as part of the Priority Research Program and Equipment (PEPR) for women’s and couples’ health. “More broadly, funding will be available through PEPR, the Endometriosis Research Foundation and the National Research Agency to undertake research across all disciplines on this disease that takes new perspectives. says the researcher happily, who also emphasizes: “ The Inserm Prize represents a very great honor and strong recognition of this cause.”. However, Marina Kvaskoff has not yet finished the fight for the women. His goal after endometriosis: to expand his team’s work into gynecological health!
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