Cancer of unknown primary is cancer with metastases whose origin is unknown, that is to say the organ through which they have spread. The Institut Curie in Paris is one of the few working on the subject. To help finance this research, a patient has just set up an association.
15 months ago, Charles Dobel learned that he had cancer at a very advanced stage: “I was told that I had carcinoma of undetermined origin, which, for me, meant nothing. I asked them ‘what does that mean in practice?’ and it was explained to me that it happens in very few cases in France but that we call it a cancer of unknown primary. We cannot, despite all the tests, find the initial tumor from which the cancer originated. cancer”.
At the Institut Curie, Sarah Waason, doctor and researcher, has developed an artificial intelligence tool to try to find the organ from which the cancer developed: “We said to ourselves that these secondary cancer lesions of unknown primary did indeed come from somewhere and that they must keep a genetic imprint of their tissue of origin. We taught the artificial intelligence tool to recognize the “genetic fingerprint of several thousand well-labeled tumors. The machine was asked to tell us if it was able to identify the potential genetic fingerprint.”
On the computer, the tool displays all known genetic fingerprints and compares them with those in the sample
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© France 3 PIDF
In 90% of cases, artificial intelligence will find the origin of this unknown cancer and, as Sarah Watson reminds us, “identifying the origin means being able to allow the patient to have access to personalized medicine, reduce the side effects of broad-spectrum chemotherapy which would not be suitable and, we hope, increase patient survival”.
Like Charles, for one in five patients, the origin of cancer still remains unknown. This is why he decided to create the Rock 4 Life association to change things: “I refuse the rather gloomy diagnosis of this disease because, overall, life expectancy is 12 months from the moment you are told that you have this cancer. I learned that there were 7 000 cases per year, which is still a lot I said to myself ‘I can’t stay there without doing anything’ so I decided to be resilient and combative and I created this association..
Since then, the rock fan has composed a song about his illness with his band:
To advance research, Charles hopes to raise 3 million euros. He will soon give a concert in Lille with the former guitarist of the group Trust and all the profits will be donated to his association.
