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On the set of What a time! Saturday evening, ex-presenter Véronika Loubry spoke about her partner’s painful pancreatic cancer and her role as caregiver, which she takes head on. A spotlight on this cancer which is still difficult to detect in time.
Present on the latest edition of the show What an era! on France 2 Saturday evening, Véronika Loubry touched the public. Without makeup and without tongue in cheek, the ex-host spoke about her life with many twists and turns and an event that changed everything last year: the announcement of her companion Gérard Kadoche’s pancreatic cancer.
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer changes everything
It was during a blood test that he received the violent diagnosis: stage 4 pancreatic cancer, at 57 years old. From then on, the daily life of Véronika Loubry and her family collapsed. But she intends to use her networks to speak loud and clear and say:
“From then on, I went through hell, my partner has cancer but life will go on, I will be a caregiver, a companion, a warrior for him.”
A role that she takes on today without fail, despite the reality that will speak to many caregivers: “The person who receives the word cancer is not ready, she saysBut the person who is next to it must smile, compose and pretend, cry silently and scream alone”.
At 56, Véronika Loubry concludes with a true cry from the heart and a declaration of war against illness:
“I love him, I want him to live years and years and years by my side, I can’t imagine life without him. We are a real family, he is the man of my life and I want his pancreatic cancer to disappear from his body!”
A cancer that is difficult to detect before it is too late
Pancreatic cancer has the particularity of having a poor prognosis. Why ? Because it is difficult to detect it before it reaches an advanced stage. The organ is located deep in the abdomen and the cancer presents symptoms that may be misattributed to other diseases.
“Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies, largely because the majority of patients are diagnosed only after the cancer has already metastasized” said Ajay Goel, chair of the department of molecular diagnostics and experimental therapy at the City of Hope Cancer Center in a new study.
But the situation might not be irreversible. The scientist presented this Monday at AACR Annual Meeting a new blood test that could refine the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at an early stage. The test looks for eight small RNA particles and eight larger DNA markers emitted by pancreatic cancers, which together create a genetic “signature” of the disease.
97% of cancers detected at an early stage with this test
This latest trial presented involved 523 people with pancreatic cancer and 461 healthy people from Japan, the United States, South Korea and China. In these patients, the blood test detected:
- 93% of pancreatic cancers among American participants;
- 91% of pancreatic cancers among South Koreans;
- 88% of pancreatic cancers in the Chinese group.
When researchers combined the blood test with a test for an already established pancreatic cancer marker called CA 19-9, the accuracy increased to 97% for stage 1 and 2 cancers among U.S. participants.
“Our approach offers a liquid biopsy test superior to CA19-9 measurement alone for early-stage disease.”, Goel said. However, additional research remains necessary to validate the test before it can be deployed to the general population.
Slide: 10 warning symptoms of pancreatic cancer