This is a major breakthrough for the many cancer patients. The immunotherapy treatment will be more widely reimbursed. Four new cancers to be treated using this method: lungs, melanoma, lymphoma and bladder cancer. Immunotherapy involves stimulating the immune system to turn against the affected cells. 16,000 new patients will be able to benefit from it every year.
Among them are the thousands of patients with advanced bladder cancer. Cancer that had only one treatment for 30 years, the chemotherapy.
“The patients had a life expectancy of about fifteen months. They had no other hopes: once we had done this first treatment, we could do nothing more to them if they relapsed”, says Nadine Houédé, head of department in medical oncology at the CHU of Nîmes. “Some patients have died without being able to access this type of molecule.”
40% decrease in recurrence in melanoma patients
This molecule is better tolerated, with prolonged survival. Hope also returns in patients with melanoma at high risk of relapse. Clinical trials prove a 40% decrease in recidivism. There is also good news for the lung cancer, the one that is most common. “It is more than half of the patients who will have a decrease in the size of the tumor from the first scans. A decrease which is maintained over time“, reveals Nicolas Girard, coordinator of the Institut du Thorax Curie Montsouris.
Immunotherapy treatment costs 5,000 euros injection at the rate of one every three weeks for two years. It can also be covered by health insurance.
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