“We are moving towards a future in which cancer will no longer be associated with fear. I think this is possible, and in a shorter time than we think,” oncologist Aleix Prat, director of the Cancer Institute of the Hospital Clínic, predicted yesterday at a luncheon-discussion held at the Círculo del Liceo, in Barcelona.
Prat, a pioneer in applying genomics to improve breast cancer treatment, highlighted “three disruptive advances that will have an enormous impact” in the field of cancer. These advances will be added to the new therapies that in the last two decades have improved the prognosis of multiple types of tumor, which have gone from being incurable to being able to be successfully treated.
The liquid biopsy stood out first, which detects DNA from tumor cells in a blood test. With this emerging technology, it will be possible to diagnose different types of tumors earlier and analyze more quickly whether patients respond to treatments.
He also highlighted immunotherapies that increase the ability of the immune system to eliminate tumor cells. These therapies have already demonstrated their effectiveness in different types of cancer, although they do not work in all patients, and they face the challenge of expanding the types of cancer in which they are applied and the percentage of patients who respond to them.
Finally, Prat highlighted the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to oncology, which “has enormous potential to take advantage of the many data we have on patients, which are now not taken into account, and which will be useful to treat them in an effective way.” personalized.”
But he warned that the health system will have to adapt to offer the best care to people with cancer. In the field of training, “the MIR system has become obsolete,” he declared. “Oncologists should not only be trained in care; They must also be trained in research and innovation, something that at the Clínic Cancer Institute we are going to promote.”
In the field of care, he added, “the patient must be in the center and all services will have to be coordinated to care for him,” something that is already being promoted at the Clínic and in hospitals accredited as Comprehensive Cancer Centers, such as the from Vall d'Hebron.
