Onco Actu du 5 février 2016

	1. Biologie
New clues to common and elusive KRAS cancer gene [University of Michigan Health System] “This is not a near-term solution. It is a basic science discovery that has potential to be translated. It’s exciting to consider that KRAS may not be the undruggable target we thought it is,” Chinnaiyan says.
Minority of cancer cells affect the growth and metastasis of tumours [Karolinska Institutet] The findings are of fundamental biological importance for the understanding of the different functions of cancer cells, and are now published in the scientific journal PNAS.
Cool Videos: Spying on Cancer Cell Invasion [NIH Director's Blog] This video showcases the power of intravital microscopy (IVM), an extremely high-resolution imaging tool that can monitor cellular and molecular activity in live mice in real time.
	3.8 Prévention - Alimentation
Fiber and breast cancer risk: holes in Harvard news release set stage for misleading news coverage [HealthNewsReview] This is the kind of questionnaire-based diet study that the news media typically do a poor job of communicating about, mainly because journalists don’t give readers a fair sense of the many significant limitations of this type of research.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Could new NHS diagnostic centres tackle vague cancer symptoms? [Cancer Research UK] The ACE Programme is testing new ways to get more cancers diagnosed early across England. And is in the process of establishing a number of projects to look at how to set up a similar model in the NHS to that used in Denmark.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Blood Simple? Grail's Cancer Screening Quest Faces Tough Questions [Xconomy] From conversations with Klausner and many others in the field of cancer research, treatment, and prevention, it’s clear that the scope and audacity of Grail’s plans will require measurements and analysis that stretch the understanding of biology, as well as strategies that run counter to much of the current thinking in public health.
Cancer Evolution – It’s in the Blood! [The Darwin Cancer Blog] There is no doubt that ctDNA analysis already provides a window into cancer evolution processes and many more questions will be answered by this powerful technology. Eventually, this may even reveal the very molecular processes enabling cancers to evolve rapidly.
	5. Traitements
Cancer cells kill off healthy neighbours [Cancer Research UK] Their discovery could point to new ways of holding early tumours at bay, but further studies in human cells will be needed to confirm the findings.
Keep cancer alive to stop it spreading, say scientists [The Telegraph] Researchers at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, have used fruit flies genetically manipulated to develop intestinal tumours to show for the first time that as the tumour grows and its cells proliferate, it kills off surrounding healthy cells, making space in which to grow.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
ASCO Names Advance of the Year: Cancer Immunotherapy [ASCO] “No recent cancer advance has been more transformative than immunotherapy. These new therapies are not only transforming patient lives, they are also opening intriguing avenues for further research,” said ASCO President Julie M. Vose.
Policy Issues in the Clinical Development and Use of Immunotherapy for Cancer Treatment [Institute of Medicine] Workshop participants will discuss current preclinical models for immunotherapies, challenges in clinical trial design and implementation, opportunities for greater collaboration and information exchange, and strategies for scaling up production of novel FDA-approved immunotherapies to facilitate broad patient access.
	5.2 Pharma
Phase 3 Study of BLINCYTO Blinatumomab Met Primary Endpoint Of Overall Survival In Patients With BCell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [Amgen] The TOWER study was a Phase 3, randomized, open-label study investigating the efficacy of the BiTE® antibody BLINCYTO versus SOC chemotherapy in adult subjects with Philadelphia chromosome-negative relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor ALL.
FDA Puts Heat Biologics Bladder Cancer Trial on Partial Hold [Xconomy] Heat says its cancer treatments work by introducing an antigen that shares the characteristics of cancer cells, which in turn triggers an immune system response to fight the cancer cells.
Big Pharma spending big to push patients to take their meds [STAT] The pharma industry loses tens of billions in worldwide sales each year when patients don’t fill, or refill, their prescriptions. So drug makers from London to Tokyo to Cambridge, Mass., are pouring money into programs aimed at cajoling — or nagging — patients to take every last pill their doctors prescribe.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
ImmunoGen and Merck Establish Collaboration for Clinical Evaluation of Mirvetuximab Soravtansine in Combination with Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer [ImmunoGen] Mirvetuximab soravtansine is an experimental ADC for FRα-positive cancers that has shown notable activity for FRα-positive ovarian cancer in early clinical testing.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
UK lung cancer patients get early access to breakthrough BMS drug [Pharmafile] Regulator NICE rejected the drug for squamous lung cancer in draft guidance in December after deeming it not to be cost-effective, and is due to make a final decision in May, but in the meantime, Opdivo will be available to treat the non-squamous form of this cancer.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
Building a Modern Generic Drug Review Process [FDA Voice] Over the past three years, we have approved hundreds of first generics for over 200 new drug products.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Cancer Drugs Fund 'should be managed better', say MPs [BBC News] The MPs recommend more thorough information is collected about how patients are benefiting from the drugs. And they say tough decisions will need to be made about spending.
Government has no idea about Cancer Drugs Fund's impact, MPs say [The Guardian] Department of Health and NHS England have insufficient data on patient outcomes or value for money, and little control over its spiralling budget, committee says.
Even Greeks can get more medicines than Brits, Pfizer boss claims [The Guardian] Erik Nordkamp warned that the system for approving new drugs in Britain needed radical reform as it could stop a new wave of specialist and personalised medicines becoming available for patients.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Tackling the Global Cancer Burden: A Conversation with NCI’s Dr. Ted Trimble [National Cancer Institute] NCI’s Center for Global Health (CGH) was established in 2011 to foster research and collaboration aimed at better addressing the global burden of cancer, particularly in countries where the incidence of and deaths from cancer have been rising.
	6.1 Observation
Cancer death rates fall by almost 10 per cent in 10 years [Cancer Research UK] This now means that in 2013, 284 out of every 100,000 people in the UK died from cancer - around 162,000 people. A decade ago this was 312 in every 100, 000.
Women Who Survive Breast or Thyroid Cancer Are More Likely to Develop the Other Type Later [AACR] The results showed that women who had survived breast cancer were 1.55 times more likely to develop thyroid cancer than a woman who hasn’t had breast cancer, and women who had survived thyroid cancer were 1.18 times more likely to develop breast cancer than a woman who hasn’t had thyroid cancer.
Cancer deaths fall 10 per cent in a decade - but alcohol fuels rise in liver cases [The Telegraph] Four cancers – lung, bowel, breast and prostate – account for almost half of all deaths from the disease in the UK. The four saw an 11 per cent drop in death rates over the decade.
Many cancer survivors face increased risk of heart disease [Reuters] In a study of about 110,000 people, survivors of certain cancers – including tumors in the lung, ovaries, bone marrow and lymph system – had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease than individuals with no history of malignancies, the study found.
	6.10 Politiques
Clinton, Sanders trade barbs over special interest money from drug companies [STAT] Sanders said there is plenty of evidence that campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies and other special interests have narrowed the nation’s political agenda.
After The Martin Shkreli Circus, How Can We Fix Drug Pricing? [Forbes] Congress, for its part, showed itself to be full of ignorance about how the medical system and pharmaceuticals work.
	6.11 Patients
Well: Living With Cancer: A Woman Like Me [NY Times] Terrible as cancer is, it has prompted people to produce astonishing art. The power of this meta-movie resides not in retrospective platitudes about women with metastatic disease but in its representations of their urgent exertions to imagine the unimaginable.
	6.6 Publications
Let’s just try that again [The Economist] If this institute flourishes—and even more so if it is emulated—it may even become possible to make a career out of being a buster of others’ questionable efforts: a forensic scientist of science, as it were. That is by no means certain, and there will probably be few Nobel prizes in it.
If you fail to reproduce another scientist’s results, this journal wants to know [Science] The contradictory results—along with successful confirmations—will be published by F1000Research, an open-access, online-only publisher.
Biotech giant publishes failures to confirm high-profile science [Nature News & Comment] Amgen posts three studies at new online channel for discussing reproducibility.
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
Three Industry Leaders Join the CancerLinQ™ Team to Help Guide Big-Data Initiative [ASCO] “We’re building a team of uniquely talented professionals to advance this big-data initiative,” said CancerLinQ CEO Kevin Fitzpatrick. “These three new team members will be leading our alliances throughout the oncology community. These collaborations are critical to achieving CancerLinQ’s goals of inclusiveness, engagement, and collegial exchange.”
	6.9 Controverses
Should biologists stop grouping us by race? [STAT] “So many health disparities are not about race but are about social conditions,” such as education, and access to health care, Yudell told STAT, so analyzing health data through the prism of race can blind scientists to factors that contribute more to those disparities.