INTERVIEW
Pink October, a breast cancer awareness campaign for one month, begins this Tuesday. For the occasion, Suzette Delalogue, oncologist at Gustave-Roussy, was the guest of Europe 1 Tuesday morning. She notably spoke about MyPebs, the European study for a personalized breast cancer screening, of which she is coordinator.
Towards a personalized screening
It is currently recommended in France for women over 50 to have a mammogram every two years until they are 74 years old. For women between the ages of 40 and 50, screening is individual: there is no organized program. "Screening is good but it was developed more than twenty years ago, and today we clearly need to evolve," said Suzette Delalogue on Europe 1. "We need to do better, detect cancers earlier, reduce mortality that is 12,000 women a year in France, and less annoying women who will never have cancer. The oncologist recalls that one in five women will have a biopsy for an abnormality that will prove to be benign.
Breast cancer can be cured in 9 out of 10 cases, "if it is detected early," says the oncologist. In an attempt to improve screening, a study is conducted at European level on personalized screening. "Instead of doing a mammogram for everyone, depending on age, the idea is to adapt according to the individual risk of each person to develop cancer."
10 to 15% of over-diagnosis
The study concerns 85,000 women, 20,000 of whom are in France, who must complete an online questionnaire. They are then drawn to either continue for four years normal screening or make personalized screenings. In the latter case, their individual risk score of developing breast cancer, is evaluated. "We ask them for a saliva sample to perform a genetic test, and then we use their family history and a number of other criteria," says Suzette Delalogue, "and women who are at low risk of not having mammograms are advised. If you have average risk, you can do it every two years, and for high-risk women, we estimate that you need to have mammograms every year, or even an annual MRI. "
The purpose of these individual screenings is also to reduce the cases of over-diagnosis, of which the proportion is currently 10 to 15%. The results of this study will not be available for 6 to 8 years. In the meantime, screening remains the norm for women who must follow the recommendations of their doctors.