Yasmina Kattou, edited by Yanis Darras
Proton therapy is revolutionizing the treatment of pediatric cancers. More precise and with fewer side effects, the treatment also drastically reduces the chances of having a new cancer during the patient’s lifetime. What offer new perspectives to the thousand children affected each year by cancer in France.
Could a small revolution be underway in the world of health? While nearly 1,700 new cases of cancer are detected in children in France each year, there is now a high-precision technique for treating pediatric cancers. Proton therapy revolutionizes treatments, targeting only the tumor when the beams pass through the patient’s body. Healthy tissue around cancer cells is spared. A major change, says Sylvie Helfré, oncologist at the Institut Curie.
Because, “when there is a tumor in the brain, there are many healthy organs around which, in children, are in development”, she specifies at the microphone of Europe 1. “So they are even more sensitive to irradiation and which can then lead to long-term sequelae”, adds the oncologist.
Fewer side effects
Another major advance, proton therapy prevents children from developing cancer after exposure to radiation. “Most cancers in children are cured. So these little ones will live a long time. And with protons, we reduce the risk of irradiation of healthy tissues, which reduces the risk of cancer secondary to irradiation”, underlines Sylvie Helfré. Finally, the treatment is also better tolerated, with children suffering fewer side effects such as post-session nausea, which can sometimes be very debilitating.