With 6,000 new cases each year in France, 250,000 worldwide, lymphoma is one of the most common cancers. For 20 years, specialists have sought to improve the standard protocol for treating diffuse large cell lymphoma, the R-CHOP, a combination of chemotherapy and an antibody. Corn “with this treatment there is regarding 35% risk of relapse or progression of the disease in the years following treatment” explains Prof. Hervé Tilly, hematologist at Henri Becquerel cancer center at Rouen.
A decrease in relapses of 27%
Thirty-one researchers, under the direction of Hervé Tilly, have therefore developed a new treatment which, this time, combines chemotherapy and a monoclonal antibody, the Polatuzumab Vedotin. “It will bring, in a specific way, chemotherapy to the cancer cell” rejoices the specialist. Targeted treatment that benefited 900 study patients in 23 countries around the world and whose results are more than encouraging according to Hervé Tilly. “Better treatment efficiency with a reduction in relapses and progressions (of the disease) of around 27%”. And the side effects are not greater.
This new protocol, which obviously costs more, must still be validated by the European and French authorities before being offered to patients, probably not for several months.
