What’s new in oncology? The annual high mass of oncologists, the congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), was held in Chicago from June 3 to 7. After two years of exclusively virtual sessions due to the pandemic, she was experimenting with a hybrid format, face-to-face and videoconference.
“Thanks to this formula, we could follow the sessions from France, but the interest of being there is due to our meetings with our colleagues, explains, from Chicago, Professor Christophe Le Tourneau, oncologist and head of the drug development and innovation department at the Institut Curie. These two years without being able to exchange have weighed on us. It is by talking about our patients with colleagues that ideas come to us. » In fact, there was a crowd on Sunday, June 5, at the convention center – the largest in the United States – for an event which usually welcomes nearly 40,000 oncologists from around the world.
Will the 2022 edition of ASCO remain marked with a white stone? Opinions differ. “There has been no great therapeutic revolution announced, but a multitude of advances that are digging into the paths traced by existing therapeutic strategies”believes Christophe Le Tourneau.
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For others, the idea of a 2022 edition deprived of significant innovation deserves to be qualified. “We are probably less impressed than beforesays Professor Jean-Yves Blay, Director General of the Léon-Bérard Center in Lyon and President of Unicancer, which federates the centers for the fight against cancer. An advance presented on Sunday, for example, is likely to radically transform the management of 65% to 70% of metastatic breast cancers. And no doubt also, in the future, a small proportion of other cancers – lung, colon, ovary…”
This advance concerns a class of drugs that appeared about ten years ago, conjugated antibodies. Explanations. “Conjugated antibodies are version 2.0 of chemotherapy. It’s a new way to deliver it.” explains Christophe Le Tourneau. Made up of an antibody coupled with chemotherapy, that is to say a drug toxic to cells. The antibody will attach itself to a molecular target present on the surface of the tumor cells, then it will be internalized and will deliver the drug inside these cells. Hence, in theory, increased efficacy and less toxicity of this treatment for healthy cells.
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