A new treatment combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy has been successfully developed by a French team from the University Hospital of Lyon (69), to treat pregnancy cancer. A rare cancer that affects 200 women per year in France. Explanations.
Pregnancy cancer
Pregnancy cancer or “gestational trophoblastic disease”, its medical name, is a tumor that occurs in “the uterus and originates in the cells that form the placenta, during pregnancy”, specifies the University Hospital of Lyon.
This is the malignant form of the disease (about 1 in 10,000 pregnancies), often misdiagnosed.
Trophoblast tumors have a high metastatic potential – particularly to the lungs, brain and liver – and require early and appropriate treatment.
Therefore, the care of these patients must be carried out in conjunction with an expert center, attached to the National Reference Center for Trophoblastic Diseases, accredited by the National Cancer Institute, located in Lyon.
Benign forms are called “molar pregnancy”, complete or partial (about 1 in 1,000 pregnancies). A complete mole is a pregnancy in which there is no embryo or fetus; while in a partial molar pregnancy, the embryo can develop, but with serious malformations that do not allow its survival. Treatment is based on curettage of the walls of the uterus.
Success of this innovative therapy
A new treatment has been developed by French researchers, Professor Benoît You, medical oncologist and Pierre-Adrien Bolze, gynecological surgeon, at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and their teams. This therapy combines immunotherapy (avelumab) and chemotherapy and has excellent results in treating this cancer.
We have an average follow-up of 29 months for our patients, and none of them have had a relapse of their trophoblastic disease.
Pr Benoît You
That is a 96% cure rate, compared to 70% with the old treatment. In addition, the side effects of this treatment are generally mild. One cured patient was able to successfully carry a pregnancy after this therapy.
“We have an average follow-up of 29 months for our patients, and none of them have had a relapse of their trophoblastic disease. It is therefore reasonable to think that they have been cured by immunotherapy,” says Professor Benoît You.
Probably the hope of curing this cancer soon and preserving the chances of pregnancy. (???)
