2024-02-04 05:30:07
Laboratory technicians work on a processing machine to produce CAR-T cells and RNA, in the laboratory of the biopharmaceutical company Cellectis, in Paris, September 23, 2021. THOMAS COEX / AFP
The burden of cancer continues to increase, warns the World Health Organization (WHO) on the occasion of World Cancer Day, Sunday February 4. In 2022, cancers killed 9.7 million people and affected 20 million new individuals around the world. About one in five people develop cancer during their lifetime. In France, it remains the leading cause of premature mortality among men and the second among women, with a total of 157,400 deaths in 2018.
The WHO also predicts more than 35 million new cases in 2050, an increase of 77%. A boom that “reflects both population aging and growth, as well as changes in people’s exposure to risk factors »the main ones remaining tobacco, alcohol and obesity, with air pollution.
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Against this “public enemy number two” – after cardiovascular diseases – the fight must be waged on all fronts. Reinforced prevention against lifestyle risks; early detection campaigns; vaccination against human papillomavirus and hepatitis B; supportive care… The WHO also highlights the “urgent need to address cancer inequalities around the world”through expanded access to diagnostic and care services in particular.
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Immunotherapy on the rise
The war effort, of course, must also focus on the therapeutic arsenal. How can we translate advances in knowledge into medical progress here? Here, through a few examples, is an overview of the strategies developed in France by the three largest centers in the fight against cancer: the Institut Curie, in Paris, in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) and in Orsay. (Essonne); the Gustave-Roussy Institute, in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne); the Léon-Bérard Center, in Lyon. Their strike forces were reinforced, at the end of 2022, by the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC), created as part of the France 2030 plan. Its missions: intensify public-private partnerships, strengthen synergies between research and care , support start-ups in the field. “More than 60% of new treatments approved in the United States for cancer over the last five years have come from start-ups”notes Eric Vivier, president of the PSCC.
The first example of development concerns a booming immunotherapy: CAR-T cells (Chimeric Antigenic Receptor-T). The strategy, which at this stage is showing promising results in certain blood cancers, consists of fighting each patient’s tumor by relying on their own immune system. Its T lymphocytes are collected, genetically modified in vitro to boost their tumor-destroying capabilities, then reinjected into the patient.
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