Florent Pagny could be the victim of a recurrence of his cancer and could have metastases. On French television, the singer explains that he did not follow all his immunotherapy. Immunotherapy has become a widely used treatment for treating cancers, as it is less invasive than chemotherapy.
What does this technique consist of?
About 75% of cancer patients are offered, in addition to chemo and radiation, immunotherapy. Naturally, our body is capable of destroying cancerous cells, but sometimes we have to help the white blood cells do their job.
“Cancer cells are obviously very intelligent, and always try to find solutions to chemotherapy”explains Marie-Pascale Graas, head of the hemato-oncology service at CHC. “The goal of immunotherapy is to remove this shield created by the cancer cell to protect itself and continue to develop. This shield will be lifted by immunotherapy and the white blood cell will be able to destroy it.”
One or two years of immunotherapy was indicated
After his chemo, Florent Pagny went through a stage of remission. In his case, one or two years of immunotherapy was indicated. One injection every three or four weeks. A very expensive treatment: 8000 euros for the injection and accessible only in the most developed countries.
Interrupting immunotherapy was taking a risk. “He said it very well yesterday, that it was his choice, and that he understood well and that he had been a little stupid”adds Marie-Pascale Graas. “Even if we do very efficient examinations like pet-scans, and the pet-scan comes back negative… A cell is a thousandth of a millimeter so you have to be sure that you really have killed them all and that it doesn’t Not one left. If there’s one left, she’ll wake up and go back to square one.”
Immunotherapy does not work for ovarian, brain, prostate cancers. With less severe side effects than other treatments, it gives good results with melanomas, bladder, kidney and lung cancers. Patients who decide after chemo not to have recourse to it are very rare.