Cancer: More and more patients in chemotherapy

Written by Sandeep Nehra

The number of patients receiving chemotherapy is increasing rapidly, with 24% increase in four years and therapies increasingly “personalized” according to a report from the National Cancer Institute (Inca) on Friday.

Between 2005 and 2010, the number of new patients treated for cancer has increased 12% due to increases in the incidence and demographics. For 2010, their number is estimated at 358,000.

At the same time, the expected number of deaths for 2010 of 147,000 is ten years lower mortality rate per 100,000 population 16% for men and 8% among women. What explains the Inca including improved access to early diagnosis and progress of care for patients, including chemotherapy.

In 2009, 273,300 patients were treated with chemotherapy, an increase of 24% compared to 2005, more than twice the increase in the number of new cases.

In 2009 they were concerned mainly five conditions: digestive cancers, breast cancers, hematologic neoplasia (leucémies), lung cancer and gynecologic cancers.

Chemotherapy, told AFP Dominique Maraninchi, President of the Inca, is used in three cases: in the beginning of treatment, the chemo-called “adjuvant” radiotherapy treatment in addition to “prevent metastases “. Then the form of products “smarter” and “targeted” not an organ but a biological phenomenon of tumor cells, allowing the “chronicity” of the disease by blocking the target. And finally in cancer metastasis, “to try to increase survival.”

The new molecules “smart” save more than normal cells and have led to customization, a “rationalization” of treatment, said Professor Maraninchi, a trend that will continue. “This is a major policy change,” he said.

The new molecules are expensive and in the public sector, the cost of cancer treatment has exceeded one billion Euros in 2009. Hence the importance of fully classify patients who can benefit, according to a molecular test performed on the tumor, rather than to give “blind”.

According to the president of the Inca, France has invested heavily in these predictive tests. “We’re moving more and more to target molecules, and the search for the target becomes as important as the molecule itself,” he said. But for now, the tests do not exist for all molecules.

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