Onco Actu du 9 juin 2015

	1. Biologie
Yin and yang: Immune signaling protein has opposing roles in breast cancer development [MD Anderson Cancer Center] MD Anderson study reveals the function of TLR4 in cancer growth depends on TP53 mutation.
Stanford researchers suss out cancer mutations in genome’s dark spots [Scope Blog] Snyder and Melton found that fewer than one of every thousand mutations in each cancer type occurs in the coding region of a gene. In contrast, more than 30 percent of the mutations occur in regulatory regions.
Breast cancer spread 'trigger' discovered [The Guardian] The team’s latest research found that macrophages require signalling molecules called chemokines to communicate with breast cancer cells. But when scientists blocked these signals in mice, they found the number of secondary tumours in the lungs was reduced by up to two-thirds.
	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
Disease-Causing Mutations in Healthy People [The Scientist] A large-scale genome sequencing effort identifies mutations with disease-causing potential at higher rates than expected.
	3.1 Tabac
Wales’s e-cigarette ban is irrational nanny statism at its worst [The Guardian] If the Welsh government was really concerned with the health of its citizens it would clamp down instead on the health-devastating poisons of alcohol and junk food.
E-cigarettes in enclosed public places could be banned in Wales [The Telegraph] Using e-cigarettes in enclosed public places could be banned in Wales under radical plans to prevent the "renormalisation" of smoking. The Welsh Government said it wants to bring the devices in line with existing smoking laws.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Pre-natal blood test study leads to ‘unexpected’ cancer diagnosis in three women [Cancer Research UK] UK experts said the findings were ‘important’, but stressed that there was a long way to go before the work could be harnessed to routinely improve cancer diagnosis or treatment.
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announce official opening of Dana-Farber's Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility [Dana-Farber Cancer Institute] “The MCIF cyclotron – the only one in Massachusetts dedicated entirely to cancer research – will allow our scientists to create the tools needed to identify the precise molecular and genetic abnormalities that drive cancer,” said Barrett Rollins, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer at Dana-Farber.
'Be on alert for bladder cancer' women advised [BBC News] Bladder cancer is being missed in women because the symptoms are so similar to a urine infection, warn experts.
New Ways Doctors Reach Agreement on Patient Diagnoses [Wall Street Journal] Hardeep Singh, a patient safety researcher at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, says the entire system of specimen collection, processing and interpretation needs to be improved. He says pathologists should be part of the medical team and “not siloed as much from the rest of patient care.”
	4.5 Dép., diag. & prono. - Colorectal
New Clues for Detecting Colorectal Cancers Earlier [Wall Street Journal] The study, in the International Journal of Cancer, found patients with colorectal cancers saw their family doctor significantly more often in the year before their diagnosis than did people without cancer.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
Mandatory breast density reporting legislation: The law outpaces science, and not in a good way [Science-Based Medicine] We know that breast density is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but the biology is not well understood, we don’t yet know if it’s a modifiable risk factor, and we don’t know the molecular basis.
	5.2 Pharma
Getting to the red zone in biopharma R&D (and thoughts on the 2015 Fierce 15) [FierceBiotech] Some of these drugs, like Novartis' ($NVS) cancer drug Zykadia, hit the mark in a mere 4.1 months, 4 months ahead of the PDUFA date. Amgen's ($AMGN) Blincyto (blinatumomab) was approved after only 2.5 months, 5 months ahead of the PDUFA date.
AbbVie to Present Data from Studies of the Company's Oncology Pipeline at the 20th European Hematology Association Annual Congress [AbbVie] Notable data include an oral presentation of venetoclax, an investigational B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) selective inhibitor, in combination with rituximab in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (R/R CLL) patients.
Novartis places big, broad bet on cancer immunotherapy [Reuters] But while the likes of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Roche and AstraZeneca have recently focused on checkpoint inhibitor drugs, Novartis has put most of its effort behind a cell-based immunotherapy known as CAR-T. Now it is broadening its bet on different ways to harness the body's immune system to fight tumors, including a sharp ramp-up in checkpoint inhibitor work.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
Seattle Genetics Pays $25M to Buy Into Unum’s Souped-Up T-Cell Therapy [Xconomy] Rather than fixate on a specific cancer type or protein—many of the leading T-cell therapies modify immune cells to seek out tumor cells that have a protein called CD19 on their surface, for instance—Unum is engineering T cells with a surface protein that helps them latch onto a wide array of antibodies.
Seattle Genetics and Unum Therapeutics Enter into Strategic Cancer Immunotherapy Collaboration [Seattle Genetics] Collaboration Combines Seattle Genetics’ Expertise in Cancer Targets and Antibody-Based Therapies with Unum’s Novel Antibody-Coupled T-cell Receptor (ACTR) Technology.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
EMA Reflects on Advanced Therapy Classification [RAPS] In the EU, medicinal products derived from genes, cells or tissues are classified as ATMPs. Because these areas of biomedicine are still in early stages of development and are fundamentally different from other types of medicine, the European Commission (EC) regulates them differently.
Current status of European Medicines Agency policy on publication of clinical data - Stakeholder webinar [EMA] The topics covered by the webinar will include an explanation of the principles for the submission of redacted clinical reports, the redaction consultation process, as well as guidance on what is and is not considered commercially confidential information and on the anonymisation and redaction of personal data in clinical reports.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
New Breakthrough Drugs Will Cost the U.S. Government How Much Money? [Wall Street Journal] As debate intensifies over the prices for prescription medicines, a new study suggests that 10 so-called breakthrough drugs – including some that have not yet been approved by the FDA – will cost the U.S. government nearly $50 billion over the next decade.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Comprehensive Oncology Practice Business Guide Now Available [ASCO] ASCO releases Practical Tips for the Oncology Practice featuring easy search functions.
When Pain Persists After Breast Cancer Surgery [NY Times] For many of the estimated 20 to 50 percent of women who develop pain after a mastectomy, it may never go away.
	6.1 Observation
Women four times less likely to have surgery if breast cancer diagnosed as an emergency [Cancer Research UK] This is the first study of its kind that looks at how treatment varies across cancers depending on the patients’ route to diagnosis.
Deaths from less common cancers on the rise [The Guardian] The numbers, available for the first time in England, are from 280 cancers which are either rare or less common. Less common cancers are defined as cancers outside the big four, namely lung, bowel, breast and prostate cancers.
	6.11 Patients
Coping with cancer at university showed me who my friends are [The Guardian] The news came as a shock. No one expects to be told they have cancer at 20; and my treatment would entail chemotherapy in France, where I’m from, which was incompatible with going to university and being with my girlfriend in the UK.
	6.6 Publications
Fooling ourselves with science: hoaxes, retractions and the public [The Guardian] These two episodes highlight a more general problem: a lot of nonsense is published in the name of science.
Paying For Faster Peer Review [In the Pipeline] I think that most scientists can agree that the current peer-review system is probably not the best of all possible worlds - Doctor Pangloss never had to deal with the dreaded Third Reviewer, especially when the whole process took about six months. Whether there's anything better, though, has been a subject of much debate. I definitely appreciate NPG's willingness to experiment, and I wish that other scientific publishers were doing the same.
Challenges, Connections, Conversations, and Collaboration – Lessons from the May 2015 ORCID-CASRAI Conference [The Scholarly Kitchen] The opening keynote speaker, Sergio Benedetto (ANVUR), in my favorite quote of the meeting, asked: “Can we assess the beauty of the Mona Lisa by counting the number of visitors to the Louvre?”
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
How Apple, Qualcomm & Lawyers will Revolutionize Healthcare [HIT Consultant] The threat of legal accountability will make the use of data a priority. But will this be enough motivation for providers to open the spigots and make sure the data they collect is available and shared in a quick, efficient, and secure manner? This is where government regulation will play a role.
	6.8 Communication
Weak reporting of limitations of observational research [HealthNewsReview] The exaggeration should stop. Observational studies play an important role. But communicators should not try to make them more than what they are.