Helene Drouin: my commitment in supporting medical research

Against liver cancer: Hepatitis B research

On my return from Everest, I led an awareness and fund-raising campaign alongside Professor Fabien Zoulim to support medical research against Hepatitis B, which is the first cause of liver cancer. Prof. Zoulim, a worldwide renowned specialist in the field, has just founded the Institute of Hepatology of Lyon in France.

Despite an efficient vaccine, Hepatitis B has been declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a major public health issue with still over 250 million chronic carriers of the virus and over 900,000 deaths each year lost to liver cancer.

Recently discovered short-term therapies could completely cure the infection. Such results would improve the quality of life of patients, save millions of lives and reduce the economic burden of lifelong treatment. By accelerating research in this field and with a better vaccination coverage, we can hope to cure hepatitis B within a decade!  

I have been nominated Ambassador of the new Institute of Hepatology of Lyon .

Professor Fabien Zoulim: a renowned HBV expert

Since 2020, Prof. Zoulim is Chair of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV, ICE-HBV, an organization which is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He has just founded the new Institute of Hepatology of Lyon in France, first and unique hospital specialized in liver diseases.
Prof. Zoulim is Professor of Medicine at Lyon University, France, Head of the Hepatology Department , Head of the Viral Hepatitis research laboratory at INSERM U1052 and Head of the ANRS "HBV Cure" Task Force in France. 
Our project is supported by research institutions: ANRS  INSERM  ICE-HBV

Key Figures

  • Liver cancer: 3rd deadliest cancer in the world
  • Main causes of livre cancer: Hepatitis B and C, alcoholism
  • Hepatitis B: 250 million chronically infected patients in the world
  • Hepatitis B provokes 900 000 deaths each year