With more than 19.3 million new cases in 2020 worldwide, including nearly 400,000 in France, cancer is a common disease that affects or will affect us all one day, directly or indirectly. It is nevertheless a serious disease. It is one of the main causes of death on an international scale and killed more than 10 million people in 2020. It has been the leading cause of death in France since 2004 and is responsible for more than one in four deaths. In fact, despite the progress made in cancer treatment over the last 30 years, the disease is still claiming as many victims, with the number of new cases diagnosed each year constantly increasing. Current treatments are, moreover, particularly long and expensive and have a heavy impact on the economy of countries. More than 1,000 billion dollars are spent each year on treatment and support for patients. France spends 2 billion euros annually on anti-cancer molecules and 6 billion on hospital costs. Most patients are not completely cured and the risk of recurrence remains high. It is therefore crucial to optimize existing therapies and to develop innovative strategies that accelerate and improve patient management and cure them once and for all. To achieve this, it is essential to identify the causes of resistance to existing treatments, to develop innovative therapeutic strategies based on an in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms of tumor development and also to prevent the disease by determining the risk factors.
The work of the Institut Pasteur is based on three main axes :
