October 24, 2013 – Personalized medicine is today the most promising way to obtain significant therapeutic advances in cancer. And several dozen targeted therapies are currently available depending on the location of the cancer. ” Unlike “classic” chemotherapy which destroys all dividing cells, including healthy ones, targeted therapies will reach the “Achilles heel” of the tumor, a particular molecular abnormality, and thus destroy only cancer cells, with much less side effects », Explains Dr Christophe Le Tourneau, head of early trials at Institut Curie, including the SHIVA trial.
A specific treatment for each tumor
At the end of 2012, Institut Curie, a benchmark player in oncology, launched a very innovative clinical trial called SHIVA in which 350 patients are already included. For the first time, in this trial, the therapeutic choice depends on the complete molecular profile of each tumor without taking into account the organ in which it has developed. Indeed, if a targeted therapy is effective in breast cancer, why should it not be effective in lung cancer, since the two tumors carry the same molecular anomaly?
This type of innovative test requires significant human and financial investment: multidisciplinary expertise, complex and costly “high throughput sequencing” platforms, the skills of oncologists, biologists, geneticists and bioinformaticians. All within deadlines compatible with medical care. But it is above all a great hope for cancer patients.
Source: Institut Curie
