Cancer mortality is decreasing in mainland France, as is the number of new cases. And nearly 2,500 children were able to enter a clinical trial in 2014.
The National Cancer Institute (INCa) has just put online its annual report on cancer figures in France in 2015. The data show that the rate of new cases (all cancers combined) is tending to drop for men. This decrease is linked in part to a reduction in the number of prostate cancers. The results are less positive for women for whom only a slowdown in the progression of new cases is observed.
A mortality that tends to decrease
In 2015, the number of new cancer cases in mainland France was estimated at 385,000. Around 211,000 men were affected, mainly by prostate cancer, followed by lung cancer and colon-rectal cancer. As for women, 174,000 have been diagnosed with cancer, the most frequent being that of the breast before that of the colon-rectum and that of the lung.
For 30 years, the death rate from cancer has fallen, but the number of deaths is still high. Last year, 149,500 deaths in mainland France were recorded, including 84,500 men and 65,400 women. The most fatal cancer in men is lung cancer (25%) followed by colon-rectal cancer (11%) and prostate cancer (10%). Breast cancer is responsible for 18% of deaths in women, ahead of lung cancer (15%) and colon-rectal cancer (13%).
Increasing survival for children
In France, cancer in children under 15 represents around 1% to 2% of all cases. For this age group, the most frequent remain leukemia (28%), tumors of the nervous system (25%) and lymphoma (11%). However, the 5-year survival rate is 80% in these children, a figure that has been increasing since 2000. The most common cancers in adolescents are Hodgkin lymphoma (22%), acute leukemia (12%) and cancer. thyroid (9%). Their 5-year survival rate is roughly the same as that of children under 15, 81.8%. This rate is also slightly higher in girls (85.2%) than in boys (78.8%), because certain types of cancer predominant in girls respond better to treatment.
Better organized trials in children
In 2015, the National Cancer Institute certified six early phase clinical centers (CLIP2), which are investigative centers specializing in clinical trials of new drugs. This approach aims to facilitate and accelerate the inclusion of young patients in clinical trials.
A place for interdisciplinarity will be given in all these centers to develop multi-organ clinical trials and multidisciplinary research in onco-pediatrics. This labeling will allow the pharmaceutical industries to collaborate with the CLIP2 for the implementation of early trials. with the aim of testing innovative molecules. In 2014, only 72 children were included in an industrial clinical trial. Currently too few drugs are developed for children but trials continue to multiply. In 2007, the number of children included in institutional clinical trials was 853, it has increased steadily to reach 2443 children in 2014.
Source: INCa 2015
.
