At the World Cancer Congress in Chicago, in June, a team from France’s Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, on the outskirts of Paris, presented a new immunotherapy treatment called nivomulab, aimed at treating so-called “female” cancers such as vaginal and cervical cancer. In 70 per cent of patients, the treatment was found to stabilise the disease. What’s more, cancer was even found to regress in 20 per cent of women treated.

While immunotherapy also offers good results, validated in clinical trials, for melanoma skin cancer, kidney cancer and lung cancer, scientists now have breast cancer treatment in their sights.

Their work notably focuses on aggressive tumours, like triple-negative breast cancers, which account for 15 per cent of breast cancer cases affecting younger women, who aren’t yet covered by screening programs.