The Prism institute, dedicated to cancer research, wants to offer targeted therapies to all patients within a few years by directing them to the right treatment as soon as they are taken care of.

Guest Tuesday of "Without appointment", Professor Fabrice André takes stock of the progress of this research. 

INTERVIEW

Cancers are the leading cause of death in men and the second in women in France.

More than 150,000 people die from it each year.

But what you need to know is that detecting cancer at an early stage in its development significantly increases the chances of a cure.

It is from this observation that the Prism research institute was born, dedicated to the search for future cancer treatments.

"Our long-term objective is to offer targeted therapies to all patients by determining the right treatment from the start," explains Professor Fabrice André, guest of

Sans Rendez-vous

Tuesday. 

Determine the risk of relapse as soon as possible

Each cancer patient is in a unique way.

"The goal of Prism is to find ways to understand the molecular mechanisms of cancer in each patient. We will thus be able to determine which target to type in order to improve the prognosis", summarizes Fabrice André.

For this, researchers rely in particular on artificial intelligence.

Because some cutting-edge software is capable of detecting information invisible to the eye of scientists. 

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"To detect cancer today, we use pathology

(

microscopic analysis of cells or tissues taken from an organ, nldr)

. These samples contain hundreds of thousands of information but a doctor can not extract everything. While we can ask artificial intelligence to identify the combination of points associated with a risk of relapse. "

Knowing in advance that a patient is at risk of relapse, doctors can adapt their treatment upstream. 

"Synthetic" cancers to experiment with treatments

This type of innovation could be particularly beneficial for aggressive cancers such as pancreatic cancers, whose mortality rate is still stable or even increasing.

To better understand them in the future, research is also being carried out on the side of ex vivo observations.

"It is a question of seeing if we can create kinds of synthetic cancers outside the patient to expose him to drugs and see which ones could work better", explains Fabrice André. 

Global and dynamic research

Institutes of the same type as Prism exist all over the world, in the United States, the United Kingdom and even in Germany.

"We work together on a daily basis, everyone does this together."

If their research is successful, 200,000 lives could be saved worldwide each year.

"By treating patients when cure is still possible, 50% of relapses can be prevented."

If they are not successful, research is advancing at a good pace.

"We have the scientific and technological elements that can lead us in the next 10 years to have 70% of cancer cured. The roadmap has been drawn", underlines Fabrice André.

He adds: "To go beyond that, you're going to need brilliant minds who bring in things that you don't yet have an idea of."