As part of World Cancer Day, the Psychological Support Association for Cancer Patients (APPAC) and the League Against Cancer organized a conference on Tuesday, February 4, in Nice.
The League Against Cancer and the APPAC joined forces to co-organize the conference “Facing Cancer, Hope and Confidence”. The aim of this meeting is to highlight the perspectives and advances in cancer research. Topics such as cancer prevention through sports, vaccination, treatments, or even bone marrow transplantation were discussed. Finally, the psychological care of the patient was also on the agenda.
On this occasion, Professor Franck Chauvin, Vice President of the National League Against Cancer, gave a lecture on cancer prevention. “Currently, we are working a lot on prevention because enormous progress has been made in therapeutics. In the future health law, prevention should become a primary concern of our healthcare system.” He also highlighted the marked social inequalities that exist in terms of health in France, the most unequal country in Europe.
How does cancer develop?
“There are 60 trillion cells in the body, 10 quadrillion cell divisions throughout life, and 200 billion cells divide and die each day. In this ongoing cell production, errors, or mutations, frequently occur due to the complexity of the system. Our system is designed in such a way that these anomalies are repaired, but risk factors will contribute to the development of this cancer,” explains the professor.
It takes about 5 years to have 1g of tumor for cancer. “When diagnosing a person, you have to go back 5 years to find the event that triggered the cancer,” he adds.
Some figures
According to this research, 1/3 of deaths are directly related to these risk factors. This represents 50,000 deaths per year.
Over 20 years, a 70% increase in new cases has been observed.
In France, every day, 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer.
150,000 French people die as a result of cancer, including 35,000 linked to the fact that people do not undergo recommended screenings (colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and breast cancer). However, mortality is kept stable thanks to prevention and screening.
Risk factors
The Academy of Medicine and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have worked on risk factors. In France, as in all European countries, tobacco is the main factor, causing 70,000 deaths per year. Alcohol, viruses such as HPV*, hormonal treatments, overweight, and pollution are risk factors that come after tobacco. By eliminating risk factors, 30% of cancer-related deaths could be avoided.
Prevention
80,000 deaths could be avoided with prevention, screening, and the elimination of risk factors. However, prevention messages do not reach everyone. In disadvantaged areas, the rate of participation of women in breast cancer screening is low. Thus, there are 30% more breast cancers than in favored areas. “This means that our system is not working. Currently, we are working to see if we can convey prevention messages in television series or through the use of video games,” laments Franck Chauvin.
Cancer is not a fate; it is necessary to rectify the way messages are formulated so that people adhere and feel concerned.
