at the annual conference in Chicago, new hopes in the fight against lung cancer

Very promising results against several forms of lung cancer were announced on Sunday at Asco, where 35,000 oncologists from around the world are meeting until Tuesday.

When she set down her bags in Chicago, Valérie Montagny dreamed of some good news. In the immense aisles of the annual cancer conference (Asco), she collected more than expected. At 57 years old, seven of whom are fighting the disease, this president of an association of lung patients is one of the rare guests of honor at this high mass of the fight against cancer, which is held from May 31 to June 4. “I am there to carry the voice of the patients. It is of each of them that I think when I see the positive announcements piling up, of the hope that this will arouse”she explains.

There is something. This year, the scientific harvest is more than good in the field of thoracic tumors. Two studies, presented on Sunday June 2, even caused a sensation in the very selective so-called “plenary” session of the congress, where major advances were discussed. A kind of Holy Grail.

Among the drugs that will change the situation, there is notably immunotherapy. It was administered to patients suffering from a very aggressive form of lung cancer, small cell cancer (SCLC), largely attributable to tobacco. The singer Florent Pagny had notably declared in the press that he suffered from this type of tumor.

Administered after the combination of chemo and radiotherapy treatments, this immunotherapy reduces the risk of death by 27%, we learned on Sunday. Even more telling: 56% of patients are still alive three years after their diagnosis, compared to 47% previously, an increase in overall survival of almost 10%. “10% may not seem like much, but on the scale of cancerology, it’s colossal!” comments Doctor Maurice Pérol, head of the thoracic oncology department at the Center Léon Bérard, in Lyon.

“That means that we hope to cure 10% more patients. Faced with a formidable enemy, that counts.”

Maurice Pérol, head of the thoracic oncology department at the Léon Bérard Center

at France Télévisions

In the memory of a doctor, there had not been such progress in this form of the disease for twenty-five years. Injected once a month for two years into the patient, immunotherapy trains the immune system to identify cancer cells and destroy them. In France, 2,000 patients – out of the 52,000 new cases of lung cancer each year – could be eligible for this treatment. Good news in view of the relentless figures: lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world and in France. One person dies every twenty minutes.

At McCormick, Chicago’s large convention center, another treatment is also in the spotlight. This time, it is a targeted therapy which is bearing fruit in another form of lung cancer, that caused by a so-called EGFR mutation. We commonly speak of “non-smoker’s” cancer, fine particle pollution is suspected of contributing to its development.

For this one, immunotherapy is not effective. The study presented on Sunday, on the other hand, shows a considerable reduction in the risk of relapse in patients who received the targeted therapy – in the form of tablets – after their chemo and radiotherapy. Two years after their diagnosis, 65% of patients who received the targeted therapy did not relapse, compared to only 12% of patients who received the standard protocol. “Targeted treatment blocks the protein responsible for cancer, this is very encouraging,” observes Doctor Maurice Pérol, who estimates the number of French patients who could benefit from the treatment at 600.

“For patients, all these months saved without relapse, this means less time in the hospital but more, much more, with their family, their children. More time traveling, doing activities, living normally” , list Valérie Montagny, blue eyes moved in front of Lake Michigan which surrounds the American city.

Neither she nor Anne-Laurence Coursier, another 47-year-old patient who made the trip, are eligible for these treatments, but they remain nonetheless convinced: “This highlights the mutated forms which greatly affect young people, women, athletes, and which we talk too little about. And it shows that nothing is impossible anymore.”

It is not Professor Nicolas Girard, onco-pulmonologist at the Institut Curie, in Paris, who will contradict them. He has just come out of a session where the effectiveness of a targeted drug against another very specific form of cancer (known as ALK) was demonstrated, with nearly 60% of patients still alive five years after the diagnosis of their disease.

“This Asco 2024 finally shows that all lung cancer subgroups are covered by one drug, or even two. And that’s new.”

Nicolas Girard, onco-pulmonologist at the Institut Curie

at France Télévisions

Ten years ago, when he was a young doctor, only 5% of new patients were still alive five years later. “Today, we are at 15, even 20%. Curing lung cancer is no longer a fantasy, he says. Do you realize what that means for the sick and for us who provide care?”