In France, nearly 4 million people today live with cancer, according to the Arc foundation for cancer research. And the figures published this Thursday by the World Health Organization agency, which specializes in this disease, are alarming: some 35 million new cases of cancer should be detected in 2050, or 77% more than in 2022.
The reasons for this worrying increase are multiple: aging, but also tobacco, alcohol, obesity and air pollution. “I don’t know if we will be able to beat cancer, but we will be able to control it” affirms on France Bleu Éric Solary, president of the scientific council of the Arc foundation, who recalls that“today, we cure 60% of patients”. In the show Hello Doctorthe researcher and hematologist notably discussed the advances in research on the occasion of World Disease Day this Sunday.
Cancer better understood
“To beat cancer, you must first understand it” : this is what we can read on the Arc foundation website for cancer research. This understanding has “enormously” advanced, assures Professor Éric Solary who even considers “let her move forward every day”. “There was first an extremely rich period in the second half” of the 20th century with “the work of genetics and cell biology”. But at that time, “they did not lead to therapeutic applications“, recalls the researcher. “Since 2000, we have changed dimensionexplains Éric Solary. New drugs are constantly being discovered. We are currently testing more than 1,000 around the world. Many have become standard practice over the last 20 years.” An observation that delights the professor: “It’s changing quickly and it’s changing for the better!”
Researchers are also focusing more on the mechanisms of aging car “The main risk of cancer is getting older” recalls Éric Solary. Three quarters of diagnoses concern those over 55, according to data from the World Health Organization. “We understand better and better the mechanisms of aging, what an aging tissue is, continues the professor. We are in the process of deciphering why aging tissue promotes the emergence of cancer.”. Éric Solary explains in particular that “the first trials of preventive treatment of aging” emerging. “If we can slow down the aging of our tissues, we will slow down the risk of cancer and the risk of chronic diseases that develop with age.” he explains.
Soon a simple blood test to detect the disease?
Dozens of studies are underway to demonstrate the usefulness of using a new tool, the “liquid biopsy”, in monitoring patients treated for cancer. A liquid biopsy is none other thana blood test which aims to search a patient’s blood for fragments of DNA from the tumor or cancer cells. According to Éric Solary, this technique is already “used to monitor the evolution of a tumor that we know. And for which we know the genetic anomalies that we are looking for at the DNA level. We know where it is and we know what we are looking for”, he summarizes. On the other hand, it is not up to date regarding screening: “When you find a DNA abnormality in the blood, it doesn’t tell you where the tumor is. There are abnormalities that are found in lots of different tumors. We still have to find a way to locate the tumor” explains the professor. This technique will present considerable advantages and many observers believe that its discovery would deserve a Nobel Prize in medicine: it is notably much less invasive than a “classic” biopsy, which takes tissue from the body.
Vaccines exist, others are still being tested
To prevent certain cancers, there are vaccines. “To limit the risk of cancer du foieyou must be vaccinated against hepatitis B” explains the professor, to which we must add the HPV vaccine, against human papillomaviruses which prevents the appearance of many cancers such as that of the cervix. On this latest vaccine, the vaccination campaign for middle school students in 5th grade, launched last fall, is far from expectations, with a first glimpse “disappointing”, regretted at the beginning of January officials of the French Society of Colposcopy and Cervico-Vaginal Pathology (SFCPCV). At least 30% of the 5th graders vaccinated in college, “I don’t think we’ll be there“, Aurélien Rousseau, the Minister of Health at the time, admitted to AFP at the beginning of November.
Other vaccines could soon be marketed. Last September, the French biotechnology company OSE Immunotherapeutics presented positive results of its therapeutic vaccine in patients with advanced cancer of the lung. In mid-December, the boss of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, considered it possible that the therapeutic vaccine developed against skin cancer be approved in 2025, after new encouraging results.
The hope of imaging and AI
Éric Solary also highlights the “advances in imaging […] particularly thanks to artificial intelligence tools.. According to him, the analysis “thousands and thousands of images” or the pooling of “images that we generate at the European level” should allow “to announce the emergence of a tumor well in advance.” Experiments are underway in the Nordic countries as well as in Denmark, as the member of the Arc foundation explains: “The Danes worked on health data, on the rate of consultation and the prescriptions issued by doctors. They succeeded in creating an algorithm which predicts the risks of developing pancreatic cancer.” Éric Solary considers this discovery fascinating: “This means that when we are able to put together our health data anonymously in Europe, we will make enormous progress in terms of prevention and risk screening.”
Regarding rare cancers, “this must be based on better organization. We must work at the international level”, estimates Éric Solary. Each year in France, rare cancers, including all those affecting children, represent 70,000 new cases. A cancer is considered rare when the number of new cases is less than 6 in 100,000 per year.
The trail of monoclonal antibodies
Much research is exploring immunotherapy, which involves strengthening the body’s defenses against disease, crowned in 2018 with the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Among the new approaches to immunotherapy are monoclonal antibodies. “Antibodies are what our blood cells produce to defend us against infectionsexplains the hematologist on France Bleu. We now know how to make highly targeted antibodies which, instead of targeting a microbe, will target a cancer cell.. Today it is one of the approaches that is developing at great speed, because the technology is there.” rejoices Éric Solary.
More involved patients
Advances in research also rely on the involvement of patients. On France Bleu, Chantal, affected by appendix cancer, says in particular that she benefits from a “clinical trial of immunotherapy”. “As of today, I am doing well, as my scan taken on Monday shows a stable aspect of the imaging,” she rejoices. She decided to embark on this clinical trial despite fear of side effects: “But I always had confidence, confides this former caregiver. I said to myself that we had to help research.” “What is being prepared is that patients will be part of the selection committees for research and funding projects,” assures Éric Solary. A system that already exists in the Netherlands or Flemish Belgium: “There are patient committees which say whether the projects make sense and which give a rating. It comes in addition to the scientists’ rating and the whole is taken into account” in order to give the green light to a research project.
