Biothérapies, immunothérapies, thérapies ciblées, biomédicaments⋯. De quoi faut-il parleŕ?

Abstract

The ability to accurately describe and name medical advances is a prerequisite to foster public debates with scientists and physicians, and favour faith over fear among patients and citizens. Therapeutic antibodies are a good example of a medical breakthrough which has met with considerable clinical success, and which terminology has changed over the years. If the appellation serotherapy was appropriate a century ago, it has become obsolete. Recent names such as biotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, biopharmaceuticals have been introduced and are now commonly used, each of those can apply to therapeutic antibodies. It is thus interesting to question the real meaning of these different appellations. Our goal in this manuscript is to analyse the genesis of these terms but also to suggest how to simplify the terminology: biotherapy or targeted therapy need to be eliminated, as well as immunotherapy when communicating with non scientific public. It is recommended to favour the term biopharmaceuticals (biomédicaments in French), which clearly indicates the origin of these molecules, intermediate between chemical drugs and living biologics, whose borders need to be accurately defined also. © 2014 médecine/sciences - Inserm.