Paris (AFP)
More prevention against tobacco and alcohol, greater participation in screening, less after-effects after recovery ... Emmanuel Macron unveils on Thursday the priorities for the fight against cancer for the coming years, with a revised budget. rise.
"The ambition is to go faster (...), building on what has been acquired by previous plans", while printing "bends", we assure the Elysée , while cancer still kills around 150,000 per year in France, the leading cause of death in men and the second in women.
After three five-year cancer control plans, which have allowed "significant progress", this time a "ten-year strategy" will be announced, to "give visibility" to all stakeholders , explains the same source.
This program will be detailed Thursday morning on the occasion of World Cancer Day, during the Annual Meetings of the Cancer Institute (INCa), during which a video intervention by the President of the Republic will be broadcast.
At the same time, Emmanuel Macron will visit the Institut Gustave-Roussy, in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), in a service welcoming children with cancer and in a research laboratory specializing in immunotherapy, the one of the most promising treatment options.
The ten-year strategy, which will be steered by INCa, will include four "priority areas": improving prevention, reducing the sequelae linked to the disease, the fight against cancers with "poor prognosis" and fighting against inequalities, particularly in 'access to innovations.
Initially, a "roadmap", with concrete actions, was established for the period 2021-2025, with a budget of 1.74 billion euros from the State and Social Security .
- "Avoidable cancers" -
This envelope represents "an increase of 20% compared to the financing of the previous plan", which was endowed with approximately 1.5 billion euros, underlines the Elysee.
In terms of prevention, the government and INCa aim to reduce the number of "preventable cancers" by 60,000 per year by 2040, out of a total of 153,000 - it is estimated that 40% of cancer cases could be avoided, because attributable to modifiable risk factors such as smoking, diet, UV exposure or sedentary lifestyle.
They also want to convince more French people to participate in the three organized screenings put in place: for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and, recently, the cervix.
Objective: "to carry out 1 million more screenings by 2025", against 9 million each year today.
There is room for improvement mainly for colorectal cancer screening, with only 30% participation, while "research" is being carried out to consider screening for other cancers, such as lung cancer.
The plan also wants to limit to a third the proportion of patients suffering from sequelae five years after their diagnosis (mutilating surgeries, side effects of drugs, developmental delays in children ...), against two thirds at present.
The last objective is to "significantly improve" the survival rate of cancers with a poor prognosis, that is to say those whose five-year survival rate is less than 33%, such as cancer of the pancreas, cancer of the breast. lung, certain so-called "triple negative" breast cancers or a rare cancer, glioblastoma of the brainstem in children.
The 3rd cancer plan, which covered the period 2014-2019 and extended into 2020, "enabled major advances" in research, access to innovative therapies, treatment of pediatric cancers or even smoking prevention, but "singularly lacking in ambition in the fight against alcohol", responsible for 16,000 cancer deaths per year, pointed out the assessment report drawn up in October by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the IGESR (for the Ministries of Education, Sport and Research).
The objective for the period which opens, "it is really the fight against alcoholism and against dependence", assures the Elysee.
"All the levers" will be mobilized: research, but also the regulation of advertising, the limitation of accessibility to minors or the strengthening of information on the risks associated with alcohol, in particular with the public. young audience.
© 2021 AFP