Starting from next month, hundreds of women suffering from breast cancer will get a new therapy in France, the Trodelvy. It aims at women whose cancer is very aggressive, called “triple negative”, and who generally are younger than the average with very high risks of relapse. This therapy could extend their life for several months while waiting for new therapies. This “triple negative” cancer impacts about 15% of patients, namely 9,000 new cases per year.
It does not respond to any targeting therapy already existing and risks of relapse reach 30% in the three years following the diagnosis with a survival rate of 11.3% only. 40% of women sick are under 40 years of age. This new therapy is a slight hope for these women in therapeutic failure that without making any miracle will enable them to buy more months. According to studies results, the median overall survival doubles up with this therapy, up to 12 months against almost seven with chemotherapy.
This new therapy is an antibody-based therapy mixed to chemotherapy and will be available from November 1st. Oncologist Delphine Loirat told the AFP “this is a genuine breakthrough, we have never seen such good results in this situation of triple negative metastatic breast cancer”.