To accelerate the emergence of innovative treatments for the benefit of patients with cancer, the National Cancer Institute (Inca) launched 18 months ago clinical trials of a new type as part of the AcSé program (Secure Access to Innovative Targeted Therapies). This program aims to treat cancer patients no longer according to the organ affected, but according to genetic abnormalities found in their tumor.
Widening the scope of new drugs
Targeted therapies are drugs used in the treatment of tumors. They are part of what is called precision medicine. These drugs are designed to block the growth or spread of tumor cells. They act on molecular alterations or on the mechanisms that are at the origin of their development or dissemination. The only downside: these drugs are developed, tested and authorized for a specific type of tumor while they could be effective for a larger number of cancers.
Hence the launch of the Acsé research program, which consists in broadening the field of application of these innovative drugs to different tumors when they present the same genetic mutations.
Crizotinib and vermurafenib being tested
18 months after the start of this program, the Inca draws up an encouraging first assessment. Since the start of this trial in July 2013, 105 patients have been able to benefit from treatment with crizotinib, explains Professor Gilles Vassal, responsible for this trial at the Gustave Roussy cancer center (Villejuif). “For certain patients in a situation of therapeutic failure, in particular in lung cancer, crizotinib has shown very encouraging signs of efficacy, ”he added.
A second trial has just started with another drug, vermurafenib, used to treat melanoma (a skin cancer). About 500 patients carrying the same genetic mutation and suffering from cancers of the lung, ovary, prostate, thyroid, bladder or leukemia, will be able to benefit from the treatment within the framework of this trial.
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