Delphine Schiltz // photo credit: PEAKSTOCK / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRAR / LDA / Science Photo Library via AFP 19:43 p.m., June 06, 2023

Every year, 50,000 cases of lung cancer are detected in France. This form of cancer is the second most common in the world with 1.8 million deaths each year on the planet. A treatment for the disease, coupled with post-operative chemotherapy, was presented in Chicago as part of the annual Cancer Congress.

A treatment for lung cancer, which is widespread worldwide and causes 1.8 million deaths each year, was presented last weekend in Chicago, where the Cancer Congress was being held. Taken in tablet form every day after surgery, it halves the risk of death for some patients, especially those with a specific genetic mutation.

Julien Mazières, professor specializing in lung cancer, explains how the treatment works: "You have to have an early stage, on the other hand have been operated on and finally have this genetic abnormality, the EGFR mutation (a protein, editor's note). People who have an EGFR mutation are between 10 and 15% of patients. So even if it's not the most common situation, that's thousands of patients."

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'Huge progress'

This treatment is already prescribed in France, but only for advanced lung cancers. It is therefore a great therapeutic advance for the early stages. "In the field of lung cancer, progress is often difficult. Such a benefit observed on the overall survival of the patient, it is a progress that is enormous, "confirms the specialist.

It also shows the rise of individualized therapies. In other words, to target the molecular abnormalities that cause cancer to offer a more effective and less toxic treatment for patients. In France, 50,000 cases of lung cancer are detected each year.