In honor of International Child Cancer Day, Patrice Cellario, Government Advisor to the Minister of the Interior, and Didier Gamerdinger, Government Advisor for the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, visited the Pediatric Cancer Research Team on February 15th.
Welcomed by Professor Patrick Rampal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CSM, and Professor Denis Allemand, Scientific Director, the two ministerial advisors were given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work done by Dr. Vincent Picco, Research Officer at the CSM, and Dr. Gilles Pagès, Director of Research INSERM, head of the team “Resistance Mechanisms for Targeted Therapies” and their collaborators.
Dr. Picco’s and Dr. Pagès’ team has taken up the dual challenge of trying to discover treatments that are both less toxic than current treatments as well as more effective, especially in combatting the most common pediatric brain cancers called medulloblastomas. Their work is undertaken with the support of the Flavien Foundation. Their initial results have just been featured in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine scientific publication.
Chairman Rampal took advantage of this visit to recall that childhood cancers are fortunately rare, but among the most devastating. In positive news, childhood cancers have benefited from more progress than any other category of cancer. For example, the survival rate at 5 years has increased from 60% to more than 80% in the last 20 tears. Promising results that require further advances in research in order to further extend the path to full recoveries.
Original information in this article found on the Monegasque Principality’s official website.