Hundreds of women with very aggressive breast cancer will have access in France from next month to an innovative treatment that extends the survival time by several months: a "hope", pending other therapies.
While it is commonly believed that breast cancer can be treated well now, this is not the case with so-called “triple negative” cancer, which affects around 15% of patients, or 9,000 new cases per year.
Its characteristic: it does not present any marker (hormone receptors or HER2 protein) on the surface of cancer cells, capable of responding to an existing targeted therapy.
The risk of recurrence is high: 30% within three years of diagnosis.
In the event of recurrence with metastases, the prognosis of this cancer has not improved over the past 20 years for lack of effective therapies: a five-year survival rate of 11.3%.
Affected women are often younger than average (40% are under 40).
Aude Le Roux, 35, is in this case.
His "triple negative" cancer, detected in March 2020, has metastasized.
Mother of a three-year-old boy, whom she "would like to see grow", she knows that the months are now numbered for her.
The only concrete hope for the moment: the upcoming access in France to a new treatment, the Trodelvy.
"This is not the miracle treatment but it will save months of life," she says.
"Real progress"
This new therapy is an antibody treatment combined with chemotherapy, manufactured by the American laboratory Gilead, which is intended for women "in treatment failure" after having already received two other treatments.
Study results showed that the median progression-free survival of these tumors was increased by four months and that the median overall survival was doubled (12.1 months, compared to 6.7 months with chemotherapy).
"This is real progress, we had never had such good results in this situation for metastatic triple negative breast cancer", assures AFP Delphine Loirat, medical oncologist at Institut Curie and principal investigator from the ASCENT study, which evaluated this therapy.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran, recently announced to the National Assembly: the Trodelvy will be available in France with early access from November 1.
Until now, pending the marketing authorization (AMM) by the European Medicines Agency - which has just been given -, nominative temporary authorizations for use (ATU) had been granted in France , benefiting only a few dozen women.
But the country then ran into a supply problem.
Metastatic triple negative breast cancer cannot be cured
"Thanks to the joint mobilization of many actors (associations, oncologists, politicians, media ...), we have obtained early access to the laboratory for all patients who need it", welcomes Isabelle Yoldjian, director of drugs in gynecology at National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM).
Claude Coutier, 52, spokesperson for the #Mobilisationtriplettes collective, formed less than a year ago by women with triple negative cancer, can only applaud the result of this “collective action”: “a recent survey showed us that some 600 women urgently need the Trodelvy ”.
“Families will be able to stay together longer, which gives hope that other treatments will then arrive,” she said.
Because like other tumors, metastatic triple negative breast cancer cannot be cured.
"We want to support research, to date innovative therapies for this cancer are almost non-existent, apart from clinical trials," recalls Claude Coutier.
Among the programs underway in France, the Mondrian clinical trial of the Institut Curie was launched to be able to quickly estimate whether or not triple negative breast cancer responds to chemotherapy and thus save time.
For its part, the Institut Gustave-Roussy has initiated the Compass program, the objective of which is to assess the effectiveness of different combinations of innovative treatments.
Studies have also shown that immunotherapy (a therapeutic approach that acts on the immune system) improves the overall survival of some women with triple-negative metastatic breast cancer.
