Prof. Frédérique Penault-Llorca

Professor Frédérique Penault-Llorca is Director of Pathology and Biopathology at Centre Jean Perrin in Clermont-Ferrand, one of France's designated comprehensive cancer centres (CLCC — Centre de Lutte Contre le Cancer). With over 28 years of specialist experience at the interface of pathology, molecular biology, and clinical oncology, she is one of France's leading oncological pathologists and a internationally recognised authority on biomarker-guided cancer therapy.

Prof. Penault-Llorca's expertise lies in translating the results of tumour pathology and molecular testing into actionable treatment decisions for cancer patients — a discipline known as predictive pathology or companion diagnostics. Her particular focus is breast cancer, where the accurate determination of tumour subtypes, hormone receptor status, HER2 expression, and genomic profiles dictates the choice between chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and endocrine therapy. She has contributed directly to international HER2 testing guidelines and PD-L1 scoring frameworks that are used in oncology centres worldwide.

At Centre Jean Perrin, she leads a pathology department that handles thousands of cancer diagnostic specimens annually, including intraoperative frozen sections that guide surgical decision-making in real time. Her department is a national reference centre for breast cancer molecular diagnostics and has been at the forefront of implementing next-generation sequencing (NGS) tumour profiling for the selection of patients for targeted therapies and clinical trials.

Beyond her laboratory and clinical roles, Prof. Penault-Llorca is a leading scientific figure in France's cancer research ecosystem, holding INCa (Institut National du Cancer) research grants and collaborating with UNICANCER, the network of French comprehensive cancer centres. She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and is a recognised voice on biomarker policy and personalised cancer medicine at national and European levels.

Prof. Frédérique Penault-Llorca completed her medical studies at a French medical faculty (Faculté de Médecine), qualifying as Docteur en Médecine with a specialisation in Anatomie et Cytologie Pathologiques (pathology). She earned her doctorate (Doctorat ès Sciences) through fundamental and translational research into the molecular biology of breast cancer — specifically the role of growth factor receptors including HER2 in tumour progression — establishing the scientific foundation for her subsequent career in predictive oncological pathology.

She was appointed Professeur des Universités – Praticien Hospitalier (PU-PH) in Anatomie et Cytologie Pathologiques — the most senior academic-clinical appointment in the French hospital-university system — at the Université Clermont Auvergne, reflecting the dual excellence of her scientific research and clinical service leadership. She received additional training in advanced molecular techniques, immunohistochemistry standardisation, and genomic tumour profiling at leading European cancer institutes.

She has served on the scientific councils of Centre Jean Perrin, UNICANCER, and the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), and has contributed to the development of national cancer biomarker testing standards. She is an examiner and thesis supervisor for the French national pathology training programme (DES d'Anatomie et Cytologie Pathologiques) and mentors numerous PhD students and early-career researchers.

Prof. Penault-Llorca's clinical expertise encompasses the complete spectrum of oncological pathology with a particular emphasis on breast cancer diagnostics and molecular tumour profiling. Her routine clinical work includes the primary histopathological diagnosis of solid tumours — breast, ovarian, colorectal, sarcoma — from core biopsy, surgical resection, and sentinel lymph node specimens.

A major component of her practice is intraoperative pathology: the real-time frozen section analysis of surgical specimens during cancer operations, providing surgeons with immediate information on margin status, lymph node involvement, and tumour extent. This service is critical for breast-conserving surgery, sentinel lymph node biopsy, and complex oncological resections at Centre Jean Perrin.

In molecular diagnostics, her laboratory offers the full suite of predictive biomarker testing for treatment selection: HER2 testing by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation (FISH/SISH), hormone receptor (ER/PR) scoring, PD-L1 immunohistochemistry for immunotherapy eligibility, and comprehensive NGS tumour profiling panels that identify targetable mutations across dozens of cancer-relevant genes. She is a recognised national expert in the standardisation and quality assurance of HER2 testing methodology — a complex area where technical variability can directly impact patient treatment decisions.

Prof. Penault-Llorca has made landmark contributions to the field of predictive oncological pathology through her research on biomarker standardisation and companion diagnostics. She was a principal contributor to the development and validation of French and European guidelines for HER2 testing in breast cancer — work that has directly influenced how hundreds of thousands of patients per year are diagnosed and treated across Europe. Her research on PD-L1 scoring standardisation for immunotherapy eligibility has similarly shaped national and international frameworks for this rapidly growing class of cancer treatments.

Her scientific output encompasses over 250 peer-reviewed publications in journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Annals of Oncology, Modern Pathology, Human Pathology, and the Journal of Pathology. She has also contributed to ESMO clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer and predictive biomarker testing, reflecting the translation of her research into direct clinical guidance for oncologists across Europe.

She has received competitive research funding as an INCa grant laureate (Lauréat de l'INCa) — a prestigious distinction awarded to the most scientifically meritorious cancer research projects in France — and collaborates on multicentre translational research with UNICANCER and European academic cancer centres. She received the Société Française de Pathologie (SFP) Prix de Recherche for outstanding original research in pathology.

Centre Jean Perrin is a nationally certified comprehensive cancer centre and welcomes referrals for complex oncological diagnoses and second pathology opinions from across France and internationally. Prof. Penault-Llorca's team is particularly well positioned to provide expert second-opinion pathology reviews on breast, ovarian, and sarcoma cases where initial diagnosis is uncertain, tumour subtype classification is complex, or novel biomarker testing is required to guide treatment decisions.

International pathology referrals — including digitised whole-slide imaging and paraffin-embedded tumour blocks for reflex testing — can be coordinated through Centre Jean Perrin's pathology department. For patients considering treatment at Centre Jean Perrin, multidisciplinary tumour board discussions can be arranged to develop personalised treatment plans integrating pathological findings, imaging, and molecular data. Consultations with Prof. Penault-Llorca are conducted in French and English, and formal expert pathology reports are provided in both languages upon request.

Prof. Frédérique Penault-Llorca has received the Prix de Recherche of the Société Française de Pathologie (SFP) for outstanding original scientific contributions to the field of pathology. She is an INCa grant laureate, a distinction that recognises the highest-quality cancer research proposals within France's competitive national cancer research funding system.

Her co-authorship of French and European HER2 testing guidelines has been recognised within the oncology community as a benchmark contribution to the standardisation of predictive biomarker testing — work that has directly improved the accuracy and reliability of breast cancer diagnosis across European oncology centres. She serves on the scientific council of UNICANCER and contributes to ESMO's biomarker and pathology committees. She has been invited to present her research at ESMO Congress, ASCO Annual Meeting, and European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), and is consistently cited among the leading figures in European oncological pathology.