What treatments have been applied for cancer?
The first treatments, at the end of the 19th century, focused on surgery, which consists of removing the tumor.
Currently, surgery remains “an important therapeutic weapon”, underlines Professor Steven Le Gouill, an onco-hematologist at the head of the hospital group of the Institut Curie in Paris. “Breast cancer, colon cancer, sarcoma… Many tumors are left in the hands of surgeons.”
But surgery is also “a gateway to many cancers, and it is thanks to it that we have tumor tissue that allows diagnosis,” he adds.
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy arose from the advances of the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays in 1895. Even today it continues to play an important role, since more than 70% of cancer treatments include radiotherapy sessions. This consists of sending rays (electrons, photons, protons) that destroy cancer cells.
Their drawback is that they damage all the tissues they pass through. Many innovations attempt to remedy this problem, including high-dose, high-precision irradiation. It is about being “as precise as possible and sending the strongest possible radiation dose to the level of the tumor, without touching healthy tissue,” explains Steven le Gouill.