03 mars 2023
In breast cancers, the “triple negative” is the most difficult to treat and affects younger women. Problem, the latter do not feel informed.
Among the 60,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year in France, triple negative breast cancer affects approximately 15% of patients and three quarters of them do not respond to treatment.
In 40% of cases, this “triple negative” affects women under 40. “40%” is also the proportion of women aged 25 to 34 who say they are poorly informed regarding this form of the disease. This is what emerges from a study by the Gilead laboratory, published on March 3 on the occasion of the dedicated world day.
A double penalty in short for these women who, on the one hand do not benefit from organized screening and on the other hand, by this lack of information would be 30% not to consult immediately if they notice an anomaly in the chest. .
The importance of early treatment
The specificity of triple-negative breast cancers is linked their absence of hormone receptors and HER2 proteins on the cell surface », explains the Gustave Roussy Institute in Villejuif. ” They are therefore neither eligible for hormone therapy nor for targeted therapies. The standard protocol is to offer women who have it chemotherapy, followed by surgery, then radiotherapy. But when an early relapse occurs, in 30% of cases, the available therapies have only limited effectiveness.. However, detected at an early stage, the disease might be treated effectively in 60% of cases.
The research is progressing
Many projects are emerging to counter this triple negative. In 2022, the Institut Curie put forward its project Cassiopeia with in particular a trial on drug-conjugated antibodies. The latter combine an antibody and a chemotherapy in the same molecule, which makes it possible to bring the chemotherapy to the heart of the tumor cells.
The arrival of immunotherapy at the early stage also gives hope for avoiding the risk of relapse or progression to a metastatic stage.
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Source : Institut Curie – Institut Gustave Roussy – Gilead survey, Informing and raising awareness for early care, carried out among a representative national sample of 2,216 women aged 18 and over, quota method.
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Written by : Vincent Roche – Edited by: Dominique Salomon
