INTERVIEW
"In the 1950s, when the first center for pediatric oncology was born, we had a survival rate of 20%," says Dominique Valteau-Couanet. Guest of No Rendezvous , Monday on Europe 1, the head of the Department of Oncology of Children and Adolescents at the Gustave Roussy Hospital highlights the progress made in the fight against pediatric cancers: "The latest figures show that there are now 83% of children who will recover from their disease. "
"There are still diseases that can not be cured"
"But we must still work to cure others," says the specialist, while a communication campaign was launched in early September to raise awareness of these diseases. "There are children for whom we have temporary solutions, but there are still diseases, such as infiltrating glioma of the brainstem, which we do not know how to cure, there is not a child who has cured in the whole world."
And Dominique Valteau-Couanet points out the need to invest in research: "Everything is very expensive.To give some examples, the work of an hour of a clinical researcher to collect data is 30 euros To extract the DNA from a tumor and analyze it, it's 100 euros.To do the sequencing, that is to say, to understand all the genes of which the tumor is a carrier, it is 1.000 euros. .. "Tests all the more crucial that the tumors and immune systems of children are not the same as those of adults:" The drugs that have been a revolution for adult cancers are not or too little effective for children. "
"That the treatment has the least impact on the quality of life"
Regarding chemotherapy, for example, "we know that we are at the limit of what we can do and we will not progress with the same drugs," said the head of the Department of Cancer Oncology and Cancer. Teenager. "There is also the question of the consequences of the treatment and the future of these children (...) The quality of life of cured children who have become adults is extraordinarily important. possible impact on the quality of life of these future adults is absolutely essential. "
The cured children can thus present a higher cardiovascular risk by growing up, or "a cardiac toxicity which deserves to put in place of the prevention". Their fertility can also be reached. "To cure is good, to be able to have children when one is cured it is wonderful", poses Dominique Valteau-Couanet. "Knowing the drugs that induce these infertility, put in place programs to avoid this infertility, it is also something extremely important (...) We must develop new technologies."