Onco Actu du 17 juillet 2015

	1. Biologie
Can protein 14-3-3 sigma prevent or kill breast cancer tumors? [MD Anderson Cancer Center] Lee’s study results, which appear in the July 16, 2015 issue of Nature Communications, revealed new understanding about how 14-3-3 sigma – a cell cycle “controller” –regulates cancer metabolic programming, thus protecting healthy cells from turning into tumor-producing factories.
Scientists solve breast and ovarian cancer genetic mystery [Cancer Research UK] These protein cousins - known as paralogs - have been an enigma for about 30 years. But now we know they are right at the heart of repairing cell damage and helping to stop breast and ovarian cancers developing. In fact they have as vital a role as the more well-known BRCA genes in preventing the disease.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
How To Avoid Overdiagnosis And Overtreatment Of Breast Cancer [Forbes] If overtreatment is really the problem – due to fear and overreaction after finding low-grade tumors –the solution is not by avoidance of breast cancer detection, but by better education of physicians and patients.
	5. Traitements
Proton beam therapy: where are we now? [Cancer Research UK] As a final note of caution, despite the media hype, the current evidence suggests that proton beam therapy is unlikely to cure more people than current conventional radiotherapy techniques.
	5.2 Pharma
Amgen Announces Positive BLINCYTO® (blinatumomab) Phase 2 Study Results In Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive B-Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [Amgen] The data will be submitted to a future medical conference and for publication.
Immunocore Raises $320M Toward ImmTAC Development | GEN News Highlights [GEN] Founded in 2008, Immunocore spun out of Oxford University and is headquartered outside Oxford, where it now has more than 155 staff.
T-cell pioneer Immunocore scores a record-breaking $320M round [FierceBiotech] The long campaign has given Immunocore a claim on some precious terrain in the immunotherapy field with compounds known as ImmTACs. They use their technology to first enhance the receptor on the T cell, stabilize the T cell using an interchain disulfide bond buried in the core of the T cell--to prevent an immune response--and then arm it with an anti-CD3 antibody fragment to target the cancer cells.
How Servier saved Cellectis, the French CAR-T Miracle [Labiotech.eu] Cellectis, the €1bn CAR-T company, just announced it reached a significant milestone in its collaboration with Servier. Surprisingly, early 2014, Cellectis and its 300 employees were only three months away from bankruptcy, mainly because of the competing gene-editing technology CRISPR. How and why did Servier save them? Let’s find out.
Amgen reports positive preliminary results on leukemia drug [Reuters] While providing few details, the world's largest biotechnology company said the drug, which helps the immune system to fight cancer, induced complete remission or complete remission with partial hematological recovery in a "clinically meaningful number of patients" with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome-positive B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
Five Prime bets up to $452.5M on Inhibrx's cancer antibodies [Fierce Biotech] Under the agreement, Five Prime will pay $10 million up front to collaborate with Inhibrx on an antibody that activates glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptors, or GITRs, which are proteins expressed by the body's T cells that help galvanize an immune system attack on cancer.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
AB Science hit with FDA warning letter over clinical trials [Outsourcing Pharma] France's AB Science has received a warning letter from the US FDA for its failure to adhere to agency regulations and to protect trial subjects' safety in a pancreatic cancer study and GIST (gastrointestinal stroma tumor) studies from 2009 to 2013.
	6.1 Observation
Blacks may be less likely to get chemo for advanced colon cancer [Reuters] The treatment disparity seen in recent years may be tied to the economic downturn following the 2008 financial crisis, said lead study author Caitlin Murphy, an epidemiology researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
	6.11 Patients
Living With Cancer: Curses and Blessings [NY Times] Like someone with bipolar disorder, I see-saw between irritability and elation, depression and euphoria. As a cancer patient, I cycle through curses and blessings at a hectic rate.
	6.6 Publications
Skewering the impact factor [Responsible Metrics] Sometimes it’s the little things that count. Which is why I have started asking journals to publish their citation distributions alongside their impact factors and applauded the recent decision of the EMBO Journal to do just that.
When Do Citations Reflect “Impact?” [The Scholarly Kitchen] When we assume, though, that volume of citations ipso facto is equivalent to impact, we have likely misapprehended the purpose of many citations and we have surely missed which citations reflect genuine impact, that is, scholarly influence.
	6.9 Controverses
Collaborate and listen to reproduce research [Nature News & Comment] Better communication between labs may resolve many reproducibility problems, according to report.