“The life expectancy of young patients has not seen any significant improvement since 1959 and the introduction of radiotherapy,” pointed out the researcher in CL last February. This means that this glioma, which is not operable, “is one of the greatest challenges in pediatric oncology”.
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But hope exists. He resides among the twenty researchers of this team which is carrying out the largest clinical trial ever carried out in Europe, and from which young Lucas, 14 years old today, has benefited for five years, who has become the face of healing for all the families concerned. . The first phase consisted of targeting therapies according to the abnormalities of each glioma. Radiotherapy sessions and daily medication which made the tumor completely disappear in the Belgian teenager.
So the white coats decoded his DNA, identified a first mutation on a gene, then a second, which made Lucas more sensitive to drugs. “The Achilles heel of the disease” that researchers are trying to reproduce. “At the same time, we are closely analyzing those observed in other children who survived longer, after receiving the same treatment as him. It always takes a long time to carry out these experiments but we hope in a few months to be able to combine the two to move forward on how to increase the sensitivity of all children with this cancer to this treatment. »
“Diseases have no borders”
This first clinical trial involved 250 children. Only ten did not die. The second, currently underway, involves 360 young patients. Lucas stopped all treatment almost two years ago. He celebrated his 13th birthday on a ski slope last Christmas. There is hope there, immense. “Research takes a long time. For the general public, it’s still too long, but in one year, we’ve already made quite a bit of progress,” smiles Marie-Anne Debily on stage, who had just returned from a mission in Brazil, that very afternoon. The researcher set out in search of exchanges of practices. “Because diseases have no borders. »
A wind of optimism for families. And Marie-Anne Debily, a model for all young girls who do not feel justified in imagining a promising scientific career. “We have not yet reached parity but there are more and more of us. It’s true that it forced me to leave Charente but I remain Charentaise at heart and I always come back with pleasure. »
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