For Dr Fabrice André, oncologist and Inserm Research Director, “It is in cancers with metastases that targeted treatments have made the most progress in recent years. The use of a new class of drugs, which block a protein called mTOR, has been shown to reduce the resistance of cancer cells to hormone therapy. This helps improve patient survival by stopping the progression of the tumor. “A demonstration that opens the door to the discovery of other drugs that are even more active, more specific and more effective.
Beyond metastasized forms, this hypothesis will very soon be tested, in France and the United States, in patients with localized cancer. “In France, this trial will concern 2,000 patients,” explains the oncologist. It must start at the end of the year. He plans to compare hormone therapy alone with the combination of hormone therapy and an anti-mTOR drug. If this combination proves to be more effective, we hope to be able to further reduce the risk of relapse and increase the number of recoveries. “
Treatments that target the genetic defect
A second area in development involves analysis of the tumor genome in order to offer patients a treatment specifically targeted at the abnormalities found.
“This is a path that is potentially a source of major progress,” insists Dr. Fabrice André. By the end of the year, the results of a trial conducted in France, which involved 400 patients with metastatic cancer, will be presented. We already know that, of the 300 women who received a genetic test, half had an anomaly for which there is an active drug. Will giving them a drug specifically targeted at their anomaly bring them any benefit? This is the hypothesis that is tested in this essay and several others in progress.
Breast cancer treatments evolve every year thanks to the proliferation of small breakthroughs like these. This is how some slow-growing metastatic breast cancers develop into chronic disease.
