Name:
Dr Sarah Watson
Job Title:
Medical oncologist and clinician-scientist
Organisation / Company:
Institut Curie (Paris, France)
Biography:
Sarah Watson is a medical oncologist and clinician-scientist at Institut Curie (Paris, France), with a dual expertise in the clinical management and molecular biology of rare cancers, particularly sarcomas and cancers of unknown primary (CUP). She is a leading specialist in CUP, integrating comprehensive clinical evaluation with advanced genomic and transcriptomic approaches to improve diagnosis and treatment strategies.
She leads the RACER (Rare Cancers Exploration and Research) team within the Institut Curie Research Center, where her work focuses on deciphering tumor heterogeneity and the role of the tumor microenvironment in aggressive and metastatic cancers. Her translational research bridges clinical cohorts and high-dimensional molecular data, with the goal of developing precision medicine approaches for patients with limited therapeutic options.
Dr. Watson has notably co-developed TransCUPtomics, an artificial intelligence-based tool leveraging transcriptomic profiling to predict the tissue of origin in CUP. This tool is now implemented in routine clinical practice in France through the national multidisciplinary tumor board dedicated to CUP, coordinated by Institut Curie, and contributes to refining diagnosis and guiding therapeutic decisions.
She has received several prestigious national and international awards, including the Gallet and Breton Prize from the Académie Nationale de Médecine, The NextGen Leader Award 2026 and the L’Express “Personnalité Sciences et Santé” Award 2025, recognizing her contributions to innovation in oncology and rare cancer research.