The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron unveiled the new ten-year strategy for the fight against cancer (2021-2030). Professor Norbert Ifrah, President of the National Cancer Institute, comments on the issues.
- Endowed with new budgetary resources, the cancer plan aims to significantly reduce the burden of cancers in the daily lives of French people.
- On average, 148,737 cancer deaths are recorded each year in France.
This Thursday, February 4, on the occasion of the 8th Meetings of the National Cancer Institute (INCA), the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron unveiled the new ten-year strategy for the fight against cancer (2021-2030). Endowed with new budgetary resources, it aims to significantly reduce the burden of cancers in the daily life of the French.
Four major axes
Here are the four major axes of the new ten-year cancer control strategy (2021-2030):
1. Improve prevention. In the immense progression of life expectancy, prevention has always been the most important source of progress: 40% of new cases of cancer detected each year are attributable to our lifestyles (consumption of tobacco, excessive ingestion of alcohol, unbalanced diet and lack of physical activity).
2. Limit the sequelae and improve the sometimes debilitating quality of life of patients. “With the improvement in cancer survival and the chronicization of the disease, the weight of sequelae is increasing”, reminds the INCA.
3. Fight against cancers with poor prognosis in adults and children. “These cancers require a very strong push, otherwise progress will be limited”, comments the INCA. The idea is to advance treatments for cancers whose 5-year survival rate remains very low or does not change.
4. Ensure that progress benefits everyone.
Overall financing of nearly 1.74 billion euros
To meet these objectives, new resources have been allocated: overall funding of nearly 1.74 billion euros – i.e. an increase of nearly 20% compared to the previous Cancer Plan – including additional funding of 284 million euros for the next 5 years.
For Professor Norbert Ifrah, President of the National Cancer Institute, the new ten-year strategy “gives an essential place to research, to enable the improvement of knowledge and the achievement of the progress necessary for the benefit of all our fellow citizens. The challenge is to promote the emergence, transfer and appropriation of innovation through the avenues offered by this research: from understanding the heterogeneity of tumors to knowing the pathways of cellular functioning or the determinants of the immune response that must be blocked to compromise a cancerous process”.
“Determination of the most effective surgical approaches”
He pursues : “research is also in the study of the behavior of people in addiction or who on the contrary flee the evidence. It is in the determination of the most effective surgical approaches. Research permanently submits the knowledge or knowledge that we thought acquired to the test of reason and new facts.Thus, work involving artificial intelligence or the detection in the blood of cellular fragments (“liquid biopsies”) could help to avoid the too dilapidated approach of certain tumours, for example cerebral”.
For Thierry Breton, Director General of the National Cancer Institute: “This ten-year strategy for the fight against cancer marks a strong and shared desire to improve the healthcare offer and the daily life of all, whether it is all of our fellow citizens, people affected by the disease, or even all the actors in the fight, health and research”.
During the period 2004-2008, cancer represented the first cause of death in France in men (33% of all male deaths) and the second cause in women (24% of all male deaths). female deaths). On average, 148,737 cancer deaths are recorded each year in France.
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