A winning combination of two immunotherapies against a very aggressive form of colon cancer

Responsible for 12% of all cancer deaths, colorectal cancer is the deadliest in France, after lung cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. In 4 to 7% of metastatic forms, patients present a genetic mutation causing a deficiency in the DNA repair system. We are talking about metastatic colorectal cancer with microsatellite instability (MSI-H/dmmr), a particularly aggressive form of this cancer which develops with age but, in a third of cases, concerns young, genetically predisposed patients.

For all of these patients with metastases, traditional treatments are not very effective and the chances of recovery are low. A study carried out in 23 countries, coordinated by Professor Thiery André, oncologist at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, nevertheless raises a lot of hope. In this essay published in the New England Journal of Medicine a double immunotherapy administered as first-line treatment made it possible to prevent…