2023-06-08 04:30:00
Several therapeutic trials were presented this weekend in Chicago at the annual congress of American clinical oncology, bringing together experts from around the world. News welcomed with great hope by health professionals and patients.
“These are crazy times when it comes to cancer treatment.” Professor David Khayat, oncologist, founder of the National Cancer Institute, did not hide his optimism on Sunday on BFMTV about advances in cancer research, while the annual congress of Asco (American Society of Clinical Oncology), a key meeting place for researchers and oncologists from around the world.
He reacted in particular to the conclusive results of therapeutic trials by the French laboratory Transgene, which has designed a vaccine to prevent the recurrence of cancers affecting the ENT (otolaryngeal) sphere. Of the 16 patients treated with a personalized serum, none relapsed more than 10 months after the injection.
“Until then, we were attacking the tumor directly. From now on, we will wake up the patient’s immune system to fight it. This is extremely important news”, commented to BFMTV.com, Iris Pauporté, director of research and innovation at the League Against Cancer.
“It is still very experimental”, however reminded David Khayat stressing that the vaccine developed concerns still specific types of cancer and only the prevention of relapses.
Lung and pancreatic cancers in the face of progress
This is not the only vaccine under development. In May, the German laboratory BioNTech presented in the journal Nature the results of a messenger RNA vaccine, on the same model as those against Covid-19, to fight pancreatic cancer, which kills 88% of affected patients. Among the 16 patients studied, half developed cells capable of destroying the cancer.
“In this specific case, we are at the beginning of a story. This is good news, a source of hope”, reacted to BFMTV.com Éric Solary, president of the scientific council of the ARC foundation for research. on cancer.
Another reason for hope, the results of a clinical trial against the deadliest cancer caused a stir this weekend in Chicago: a tablet, administered daily (sometimes in addition to chemotherapy) in operable lung cancers, halved mortality with five years of follow-up.
The survival data is “impressive”, boasted Roy Herbst of Yale University. “In this type of disease, for which progress is slow, a great ray of hope lights up,” said Iris Pauporté.
Fruits of decades of research
The researcher from the League Against Cancer explained the “acceleration of innovation” in recent years by in-depth work started “a good fifteen years ago”. “We set up cancer genomics research by making an accurate catalog of tumours. It was a crazy gamble, but thanks to that, we generated a lot of knowledge.”
She is joined by Éric Solary, author of the preface to “Revolutions in cancer research”, published in April by the ARC: “We are in a phase of accelerating the practical implementation of the discoveries of these twenty years. We now know the drugs better and are able to use them at early stages. This is a major step forward.”
“Every two, three years, we have a new way of treating cancer that comes out,” also rejoiced Professor Khayat, referring in particular to immunotherapy, targeted therapy and “hopes on vaccines”.
According to 2022 figures from the National Cancer Institute, 6 out of 10 patients are cured of cancer today, compared to 5 out of 10 in the 2010s and 3 out of 10 at the end of the 20th century. This rate tends to increase further in the coming years, even if the aging of the population and better healing – therefore the increased risk of contracting several cancers in one’s lifetime – should be the cause of a greater number of cancers.
“There are good reasons to be optimistic. The objective is to reach 3 out of 4 patients cured as soon as possible”, hoped Éric Solary.
The difficulty of generalizing treatments
This progress, as encouraging as it is, will now face several obstacles. The first: advances often concern specific cases of tumors and cannot yet be generalized to all patients with a form of cancer.
For example, concerning AstraZeneca’s drug against lung cancer, Iris Pauporté made a point of stressing that it only concerned 10% of cases, or 1,500 patients in France. Then, the director of research and innovation at the League against cancer put her finger on the cost of this kind of treatment, particularly in the case of the vaccine against ENT cancers personalized for each patient thanks to artificial intelligence.
“The economic model is not stabilized. What will be the cost of testing 15,000 patients per year?”, She wondered. “We are also aware of the difficulty of access to medicines for all patients.”
According to Éric Solary, “the cost will be a source of political and social conflict”. While nursing staff have been warning for many years about the state of the French healthcare system, in particular the lack of resources invested in hospitals, the professor of hematology at the Paris-Saclay Faculty of Medicine pointed to “a contrast between the progress of knowledge and the difficulties of running a hospital on a daily basis”.
“We must preserve the health system to benefit from advances in research, he claimed, the question is on the table.”
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