Onco Actu du 8 mars 2016

	1. Biologie
How cancer cells fuel their growth [MIT News] Scientists surprised to find that amino acids, not sugar, supply most building blocks for tumor cells.
When prostate cancer spreads, where it goes matters [STAT] An international team of researchers pooled information from nine clinical trials to estimate the average survival times for men with prostate cancer that had spread to four different tissues. Metastasis to the lymph nodes was linked to the longest survival; metastasis to the liver led to the shortest.
How the US CRISPR patent probe will play out [Nature News & Comment] Decision could determine who profits from the gene-editing technique in future.
CRISPR: gene editing is just the beginning [Nature News & Comment] The real power of the biological tool lies in exploring how genomes work.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
EU to defer decision on safety of weed-killer ingredient: sources [Reuters] Two EU sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they no longer expected a decision at this meeting after France said last week it would oppose extending approval, while EU diplomats said Germany planned to abstain.
	3.3 Prévention - Vaccins
Gardasil 9 [EMA] This is a summary of the European public assessment report (EPAR) for Gardasil 9. It explains how the Agency assessed the medicine to recommend its authorisation in the EU and its conditions of use. It is not intended to provide practical advice on how to use Gardasil 9.
	4.13 Dép., diag. & prono. - Peau
Blood test may give early warning of skin cancer relapse [Cancer Research UK] Scientists from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute studied the DNA shed by tumours into the bloodstream – called circulating tumour DNA – in blood samples from seven advanced melanoma patients at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Illumina CEO Jay Flatley Built The DNA Sequencing Market. Now He's Stepping Down [Forbes] Flatley, 63, had held the CEO role for 17 years. He grew San Diego-based Illumina’s revenue from $500,000 to $2.2 billion, and its headcount from 30 to 4,800. But the bigger impact was in cutting the cost of sequencing a human genome.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
ESMO Open Press Release: High White Blood Cell Ratio Linked to Recurrence Risk in Early Stage Breast Cancer [ESMO] A mounting body of evidence indicates that inflammation has a role in the development and progression of several types of cancer, with studies suggesting that the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes, or NLR for short, may be important.
	5. Traitements
Long learning curve for surgeons operating on oesophageal cancer [Karolinska Institutet] “What the study shows us is that a surgeon needs to perform 15 operations to obtain stable results as regards survival during the first months following the operation, and a full 60 before he or she achieves optimal results on long-term survival.”
	5.2 Pharma
Celldex (CLDX) Brain Tumor Vaccine Fails Pivotal Clinical Trial [TheStreet] Celldex was informed of the failure of the Rintega phase III study known as ACT IV on Friday evening following an interim analysis conducted by independent data monitors.
Celldex discontinues late-stage study of brain cancer vaccine [Reuters] The vaccine, Rintega, belongs to an emerging class of drugs that spur the immune system to recognize and attack cancer. It targets tumors with a genetic mutation found in about a third of all glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cases. This amounts to roughly 4,000 patients in the United States.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
With $70M in VC cash, Tizona takes a fresh approach to immuno-oncology [FierceBiotech] That cash will keep the doors open for about two years, Tizona said, and the biotech is pressing forward on two immunological targets with applications in cancer.
Argos Nabs Up to $60M to Continue Kidney Cancer Treatment Work [Xconomy] The company says that its technology takes a sample of a tumor, along with a patient’s own dendritic cells—cells that start the body’s immune response—and programs the dendritic cells to target the cancer. The resulting treatment, personalized to the patient’s cancer, can then be administered by injection.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
Regulators, Industry Weigh in on Proposed EU Orphan Regulation Changes [RAPS] As the number of orphan drug approvals continues to rise in the EU, the European Commission is now considering feedback from European governments, regulators and industry on how changes to five aspects of the Orphan Regulation may further incentivize the development of drugs for rare diseases.
EMA Looks to Accelerate New Therapies Targeting Unmet Needs [RAPS] Specifically, EMA is looking for relevant in vitro and in vivo data in appropriate preclinical models, with their relevance discussed preferably in the context of the use with other products known to be successfully developed for the condition. EMA also says, if available, established in vivo models for the condition should be used.
Launch of PRIME - Paving the way for promising medicines for patients [EMA] The scheme focuses on medicines that may offer a major therapeutic advantage over existing treatments, or benefit patients with no treatment options. These medicines are considered priority medicines within the European Union (EU).
Europe launches new fast approval scheme for promising drugs [Reuters] The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) initiative called PRIME, which stands for PRIority MEdicines, is the latest example of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic working to evaluate truly innovative drugs more swiftly than in the past.
	6.1 Observation
UK diagnoses children’s kidney cancer at a later stage than Germany [Cancer Research UK] Over half of children in the UK (58 per cent) and three-quarters of German children (73 per cent) were diagnosed with early stage tumours, but in the UK almost twice as many children were diagnosed at a late stage (42 per cent compared with 27 per cent).
	6.6 Publications
Can Scopus Deliver A Better Journal Impact Metric? Response from Scopus [The Scholarly Kitchen] In researching today’s post, I made several reporting errors. These errors affected how I evaluated Scopus metrics. As a result, I thought it would be fair to give Wim Meester, Head of Content Strategy for Scopus, an equal opportunity to have his response read and not be buried in a long list of comments.
Can Scopus Deliver A Better Journal Impact Metric? [The Scholarly Kitchen] In this post, I explore how Scopus, a competing product owned by Elsevier, deals with the problem of citable items, highlighting where I think they do a much better job, but also where I think they fail to deliver what they advertise.
	6.8 Communication
FOX, Banner MD Anderson hype Cuba cancer "breakthrough" [HealthNewsReview.org] I’m as excited as Dr. Rao about the prospect of an effective new cancer treatment coming to the United States from Cuba. Who wouldn’t be? But the Fox story that quoted him had a responsibility to back up its wildly optimistic claims with evidence. And it failed miserably on that score.
	6.9 Controverses
Statisticians Found One Thing They Can Agree On: It’s Time To Stop Misusing P-Values [FiveThirtyEight] The group debated and discussed the issues for more than a year before finally producing a statement they could all sign.
We’re using a common statistical test all wrong. Statisticians want to fix that. [Retraction Watch] We were inspired to act because of the growing recognition of a reproducibility crisis in science and a tendency to blame statistical methods for the problem.
Statisticians issue warning over misuse of P values [Nature News & Comment] Policy statement aims to halt missteps in the quest for certainty.