Onco Actu du 11 mars 2016

	1. Biologie
Connecting The Dots: Cancer-causing Gene Also Helps Tumors Dodge Immune System [Scope Blog] Now, oncologist Dean Felsher, MD, PhD, and postdoctoral scholar Stephanie Casey, PhD, have discovered an intriguing connection between Myc and the expression of two darlings of the cancer immunotherapy world: molecules called PD-L1 and CD47 found on the surface of cancer cells.
	3.1 Tabac
Parliament panel urges smaller health warning on cigarette packs - report [Reuters] The government had proposed that tobacco makers cover 85 percent of a cigarette pack's surface with the health warning, up from 20 percent now. But the parliament committee has suggested in its report that the warnings be limited to half the size of the cigarette pack to also protect farmers' interest while promoting health.
California lawmakers vote to raise smoking age to 21 [Reuters] The measure, which was approved by a 26-10 vote in the state Senate, would make California the second U.S. state after Hawaii to bar people under the age of 21 from purchasing tobacco products.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
EBCC-10 NEWS: Five-year results show 21-gene test successfully identifies early breast cancer patients who can be spared chemotherapy [ECCO] New results from the West German Study Group (WSG) phase III PlanB trial, presented at the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-10) today (Friday), showed that 94% of women who had been assessed as at low risk of a recurrence of their disease by the 21-gene Recurrence Score (Oncotype DX) test were disease-free after five years.
	5. Traitements
EBCC-10 NEWS: Chemotherapy every two weeks for premenopausal breast cancer patients improves survival and does not increase risk of early menopause [ECCO] The researchers found that dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival after ten years by nearly a third (29%) compared to chemotherapy given at the standard interval of three weeks. Dose-dense chemotherapy was not associated with an increased risk of treatment-induced amenorrhea.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
EBCC-10 NEWS: Combination of lapatinib and trastuzumab shrinks HER2 positive breast cancer significantly in 11 days after diagnosis [ECCO] “Clearly these results need further confirmation, but I suspect the excitement from seeing the speed of disappearance of the tumours will mean that several trials will attempt to confirm these results.”
Drug combination shrinks HER2 positive breast cancers within 11 days [Cancer Research UK] The EPHOS B trial, led by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the University of Manchester and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, studied 257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer in the short gap between initial diagnosis and surgery to remove their tumours.
Breast cancer study finds drug combination that gives 'astonishing' results [The Guardian] The results of the Cancer Research UK-funded trial, presented at the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, could – if successfully replicated – lead to fewer women needing chemotherapy.
Breast cancer tumours killed in 11 days with 'staggering' new therapy [The Telegraph] “For solid tumours to disappear in 11 days is unheard of. These are mind-boggling results".
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Can We Treat Colorectal Cancer With Immunotherapy? [CANCER RESEARCH Catalyst] A study published in Clinical Cancer Research last week investigated an entirely different approach to making metastatic colorectal cancers responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
This drug is defying a rare form of leukemia — and it keeps getting pricier [Washington Post] In a patient newsletter in 2001, Vasella said the small patient population was a key factor that required such a high price and that his company “might be able to lower the price” if more patients began using Gleevec for other cancers. Although Gleevec never became a drug for a large number of patients, it surpassed expectations and was approved for other rare diseases. Despite that, the price continued to rise.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Cancer Care in Low-Resource Areas: Cancer Prevention and Early Detection: Workshop Summary [The National Academies Press] Recognizing the challenges of providing cancer care in these settings, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine developed a workshop series examining cancer care in low-resource communities. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the first workshop, which focused on cancer prevention and early detection.
	6.1 Observation
EBCC-10 NEWS: Does ethnicity affect breast cancer biology? [ECCO] “This study suggests that the worse prognosis seen in breast cancer patients from ethnic minority groups in the UK can be at least in part explained by the younger age of this group.
Men with breast cancer being failed as they are 'treated like women' [The Telegraph] “Men are being treated as women - we have extrapolated from female disease but we have had no randomised data looking specifically at men. We need to understand the differences and this trial is the first step towards this."
	6.10 Politiques
Groups Scrutinize White House Plan to Cut Drug Costs in Medicare [NY Times] Drug manufacturers and some cancer doctors criticized the initiative, saying it placed too much emphasis on saving money and too little on ensuring patients’ access to treatment.
	6.11 Patients
Well: Living With Cancer: Being Erased [NY Times] In the prize-winning book “Citizen: An American Lyric,” Claudia Rankine describes taking a few steps back when someone with multiple degrees said to her, “I didn’t know black women could get cancer.”
	6.6 Publications
Cancer clinical trials: In defense of the negative result [Fred Hutch] It’s not just academic. Negative results can have real, immediate impact for patients, too.
Web widget nudges scientists to share their data [Nature News & Comment] The Open Data Button — a downloadable web-browser extension — can be clicked when a reader is looking at a research paper and wants to see its underlying data.
	6.7.2 Applis
Things are looking app [The Economist] Mobile health apps are becoming more capable and potentially rather useful.