In order to improve access to therapeutic innovation, a platform, Klineo, was launched on Wednesday, December 14, at the initiative of a patient association, in order to allow quick and easy access to clinical trials for women affected by triple negative breast cancer. While most breast cancers can be treated well, this one – which represents 15% of the total, or approximately 9,000 new cases per year in France – is particularly aggressive. It affects young women (40% are under 40), often with young children. It is said to be “triple negative” because it does not express any surface hormone-dependent receptor for estrogen, progesterone or HER2 (a protein overexpressed on the surface of cells), frequently found in breast cancers.
“With the localized forms, we heal in 80% of cases, but at the metastatic stage, half of the patients will die in fourteen to fifteen months”explained Thomas Bachelot, oncologist at the Center Léon-Bérard, in Lyon, during the platform presentation day, Wednesday, December 14. “In this case, we don’t have time to wait, we are in a life emergency”says Claude Coutier, President of the association Collective Triplettes roses – born from the merger at the end of 2021 of the association Les Triplettes roses and the collective #mobilisationtriplettes –, at the origin of this project.
In fact, few patients affected by this aggressive cancer have access to clinical trials. “It depends on several parameters, of the center in which we are treated, or even of the oncologist who treats us, and it is not easy to find our way around”, describes Claude Coutier. The objective of the Collectif Triplettes roses is therefore to reduce inequalities in access to care, to improve treatment times, and to support patients. “Often, the choice between this or that treatment can be very difficult to make”adds its president.
Gain of luck
However, around a hundred protocols are listed in France. “The frustration is not finding a clinical trial in time, especially in triple negative breast cancer”, noted Arnaud Bayle, oncologist at the Gustave-Roussy Center and co-founder, with Thomas Peyresblanques and Nicolas Drizard, of the start-up Klineo, behind the platform. Intended to be improved, it was designed with doctors working in centers and institutes such as Gustave-Roussy or Léon-Bérard, the Institut Curie, as well as the association Collectif Triplettes roses.
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