At the annual conference of the European Society of Medical Oncology, which concluded yesterday Tuesday in Barcelona, important advances in the fight against cancer were presented, including, for example, new groups of treatments and techniques based on artificial intelligence to provide personalized treatment for each patient.
Possibility of breastfeeding after breast cancer
Two international studies presented at this major forum, which brought together more than 30,000 doctors and specialist researchers from around the world, revealed that women who breastfeed after receiving breast cancer treatment are not at increased risk of developing the disease again.
This also applies to people who carry a genetic mutation that significantly increases the risk of developing this type of cancer.
Previously, there was concern about pregnancy and breastfeeding after contracting the disease, as both cause changes in hormone levels.
“These results are essential for women who want to become pregnant and breastfeed their children after breast cancer,” says Fedro Alessandro Picatore, director of the Reproduction Unit at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, and co-author of one of the studies.
Dual immunotherapy for lung cancer
In this type of cancer, immunotherapy – which involves stimulating the immune system to fight tumors – has already proven effective.
The results of a second phase study – presented last Saturday – showed promising results for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, a disease that affects more than 15,000 people each year in France.
The idea behind this treatment is to combine two immunotherapies, not just one, with chemotherapy. “By targeting a second target of the immune system and combining the two treatments, we improve response rates, that is, the number of patients in whom the tumor regresses,” explains oncologist Nicolas Girard, from the Corevi Institute in Paris.
Nearly eliminating one type of pregnancy-related cancer
The combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy has shown excellent results against a very rare form of pregnancy-associated cancer (one in 10,000 pregnancies) that develops from the placenta.
Thanks to the combination of the two treatments, 96% of cancer cases were eliminated in one group of patients, an “exceptional result”, according to oncologist Benoit Yu, who presented this study.
Artificial intelligence to offer personalized treatments to each patient
A “second generation” AI-based model has opened the door to future treatments.
This giant algorithm works on the basis of a database that includes more than a billion tumor images for approximately 30,000 patients in the United States.
Fabrice André, research director at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, believes that a “large-scale transformation” of this model is capable of “detecting a certain number of molecular anomalies and mutations that the human eye cannot always see.”
In the long term, doctors will rely on this AI-based assistance to provide personalized treatments for each patient.
Hopes to save damaged organs
Immunotherapy combined with preoperative radiotherapy is improving global cure rates for a growing number of cancers (including breast, bladder and cervical), which is one of the key messages from the annual conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology.
Andre says pre-operative treatments are increasingly helping to “spare organs” during cancer, adding: “However, organ preservation is absolutely essential to having a quality of life that is as close to normal as possible.”
Monday’s study showed promising results for the ability to maintain the rectum after cancer affecting this part of the digestive system, once treatments have led to the complete disappearance of the tumor.
David Sebag Montefiore, an oncologist and professor at the University of Leeds in the UK, said: “Until now, surgery has been the norm, but it seems we are entering a new era where we will avoid surgery.”
These advances concern other types of cancer, such as nose, ear, throat and lung cancers.