Skip to content

Research

Focus on high-risk disease

Over the past five years, innovative strategies have profoundly redefined the therapeutic landscape for managing patients with cancer. In multiple myeloma, recent developments in immunotherapies (CAR T, bispecific antibodies) have proven particularly effective. Similarly, in breast cancer, new molecules (checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-drug conjugates, etc.) combined with adaptive therapeutic strategies guided by pathological response have strengthened the available therapeutic arsenal.

This paradigm shift in cancer management also redefines the previously used prognostic factors. Identifying new prognostic biomarkers at diagnosis to detect and characterize patients with a poor prognosis early remains a challenge, as does defining dynamic criteria related to treatment response. To date, the parameters influencing the effectiveness or resistance to these new treatments are poorly understood.

This underscores the need to develop risk-adapted strategies, with the prospect of escalating or de-escalating treatment based on the tumor profile, particularly for high-risk patients.

On the research front, advancements in technology also offer new perspectives for a better understanding of the relationships between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment. The integration of different types of data (genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, etc.) combined with innovative imaging technologies allows for a better grasp of the complexity and heterogeneity of the tumor in its entirety, closer to clinical reality.

At the same time, the improvement in cancer care has also exacerbated social inequalities in access to care and raises the question of sustainable employment for individuals affected by cancer.

Thus, the research of SIRIC ILIAD focuses on the care and life journey of patients to:

« Detect, treat, and sustainably maintain employment for patients with high-risk cancer »

 

With three integrated research programs: PRECIZE, DECIPHER, and SICAJOB, led by a clinician-researcher duo to:

  • Redefine high-risk patients in the context of modern treatments (such as immunotherapy), by integrating new imaging techniques, as well as genomic and functional analyses.
  • Develop and validate holistic and multimodal approaches to the disease and associated risks.
  • Early detect treatment response and explore mechanisms of resistance, with the aim of developing new immunotherapies or targeted therapies, including alpha-therapy.
  • Understand and evaluate the respective influences of the social environment, access to health services, and quality of care on breast cancer relapse.
  • Validate medical and professional predictors for sustainable employment retention after cancer, and define criteria for working conditions and managerial practices for maintaining employment.