Former French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has publicly marked the completion of five years of hormone therapy following her 2019 breast cancer diagnosis. Bruni, a singer-songwriter adn model, shared the milestone on Instagram Saturday, reiterating the importance of regular mammograms and cancer screenings for women. The update comes after Bruni revealed her diagnosis publicly in October 2023, and highlights both the ongoing treatment journeys of cancer survivors and the potential benefits of advancements in hormone therapy.
Singer-songwriter Carla Bruni announced on Saturday via Instagram that she has finished hormone therapy following a breast cancer diagnosis in late 2019, once again urging women to prioritize annual screenings.
“Despite its fairly aggressive side effects, I am grateful to science for inventing hormone therapy: it effectively protects against recurrence, which is frequent in the years following diagnosis,” wrote the wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, after five years of the treatment commonly used in oncology.
“I want to say once again to all the women who read this post not to hesitate to get screened every year if possible,” the former First Lady wrote, having revealed in early October 2023 that she was diagnosed with breast cancer four years prior. She also expressed her gratitude to the medical team who demonstrated “competence” and “humanity” throughout her “ordeal.”
Women with hormone-dependent metastatic breast cancer are typically treated with a combination of medications: hormone therapy, which reduces estrogen production, and treatment to inhibit cell proliferation.
However, in nearly 40% of these patients, an essential gene for the estrogen receptor mutates, rendering hormone therapy less effective and leading to recurrence.
Current research focuses on detecting these mutations early in the blood, before the cancer progresses, to adapt hormonal treatment, combine it with cell cycle inhibitors, and thus reduce the risk of tumor re-evolution.
