Question 2079 — diseases

Summary

Mr. Benoit Simian draws the attention of the Minister of Solidarity and Health to the situation of children suffering from cancer or incurable illnesses. With 35,000 new cases diagnosed each year in Europe (including 2,500 in France) and 6,000 deaths (including 500 in France), cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in children under 18 years of age. Between 1970 and the beginning of the 2000s, children and adolescents with cancers have benefited from treatments initially developed for adults. If their survival rate is around 70% over 10 years, this cure rate is progressing little despite numerous international clinical trials. For cancers most specific to children, life expectancy is sometimes zero and with no progress for more than 30 years. In addition, the therapies currently offered are not always suitable for such young organisms: It is estimated that two thirds of cured children will subsequently present after-effects due to their treatment. The development of new, more effective therapies, adapted to age and to children and adolescents, cannot be done without promoting the emergence and development of fundamental and translational research programs aimed at defining the etiological and molecular specificities of pediatric cancers. This research is essentially academic. If parent associations, which are constantly called upon, support some research projects on an ad hoc basis, they cannot replace the State. Researchers struggle to find funding for their projects, which ends up diverting young researchers from these research subjects, due to a lack of incentives and opportunities. The 2014-2019 cancer plan highlights the fight against cancer the child, but in reality, research suffers from a lack of resources. Today, public funding allocated to research in pediatric oncology represents only 3% of the annual budgets devoted to work on cancer. This is considered by the associations as insufficient to allow new teams to initiate innovative programs on this currently very under-represented theme, and to provide a few researchers already involved - who sometimes devote more than 50% of their time to seeking funding - the essential means to hope that tomorrow, we will be able to better care for and cure children and adolescents suffering from cancer. Also, he would like to know what actions the Government intends to implement to define specific and transparent dedicated funding for pediatric oncology research and more broadly. to help families affected by this tragedy who often encounter financial difficulties.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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