Image used for representational purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP
When Herve found out he had glioblastoma — the most aggressive form of brain cancer — at the age of 40, he made a deal with himself.
“I said to myself: it is serious, but you are at war — and you’re going to win,” the French teacher, who did not want to give his surname, said.
Eight years later, following surgery to remove the tumour, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, Herve is still winning his war.
He is just one of the thousands of people across the world to have survived an extremely deadly cancer for which there is no known cure.
“We call them outliers,” said Nicolas Wolikow, the CEO and co-founder of the Paris-based firm Cure51.
“For unknown reasons, when these people face an illness they take a completely different trajectory from other people,” he said.
The start-up is working on creating “the first global clinical and molecular database of exceptional survivors” of cancer, according to its website.
So far, the firm has partnered with 50 cancer centres around the world to get data from a wider variety of survivors and found 1300 patients to be part of the project.
Once the data is collected “we will begin analysing medical reports, images, tumour cells,” Mr. Wolikow said.
The ultimate goal is to create new drugs or treatments that mimic the molecular characteristics of those few who do survive these killer cancers.
