a new treatment with “pretty incredible results” against prostate cancer

There is hope for the 50,000 men who develop prostate cancer each year: vectorized internal radiotherapy. A new treatment which brings radiotherapy as close as possible to cancer cells and whose results are very promising.

It is a treatment which brings solid hope in the fight against the most common cancer in France. Vectorized internal radiotherapy, already used against thyroid cancers, is now used, at the Nantes University Hospital, against prostate cancer, which represents 50,000 new cases each year, and 8,000 deaths each year.

Mainly applied, for the moment, to the most serious cases, this treatment is also tested on patients less affected by the disease.

“The idea is to bring the radiation, the radiotherapy, as close as possible to the tumor cell to destroy it, and not the adjacent tissues around it.”

Matthieu Barbaud, nuclear doctor at Nantes University Hospital

at franceinfo

To understand how this works, you have to imagine a two-stage rocket. First there is the search head which finds the tumor cells, then the bomb which eliminates them. “This medication is very particular because it will only go to this receptor. You have to imagine the analogy of a lock and a key. So basically, the treatment that we are going to inject, it will go through the entire network of the organism, look for the target of interest, the tumor cells, fix on them. And it is only at this moment that the radiation will act”explains Matthieu Barbaud, nuclear doctor at Nantes University Hospital.

“Currently, it is the best treatment at this stage of the disease”

The treatment is simple: one injection every six weeks. “The results so far are pretty incrediblewelcomes Matthieu Barbaud. These are results that we have not currently obtained at this stage of the disease, with a real improvement in the quality of life of patients, an improvement in their life expectancy. Currently, it is the best treatment at this stage of the disease.”

For the moment, the treatment is reserved for the most serious cases, but clinical trials are being carried out on less affected patients. If the results are good, this cutting-edge radiotherapy could be developed, provided that the resources are available. Professor Jérôme Rigaud heads the urology department at Nantes hospital. “It’s a new treatment. We will have to make centers available, make doctors available to carry out this treatment.” “It’s expensive, it’s TRUEhe admits. There is above all a logistical problem, because we don’t do this just anywhere.”

“These are treatments based on internal radiotherapy, there must be a whole organization around the structure to do it.”

Professor Jérôme Rigaud

at franceinfo

Professor Rigaud went with other doctors to defend internal vectored radiotherapy before senators and deputies, so that the public authorities would give them the means to democratize this new treatment against prostate cancer.