Onco Actu du 14 avril 2016

	1. Biologie
Diabetes drugs fuel cancer spread in mouse study [STAT] It’s a mouse study. But the usual caveat here — the finding needs to be confirmed in people — is not too helpful.
	2. Etiologie
Antioxidants Again Linked to Cancer’s Spread [The Scientist] Zheng and colleagues first screened commonly used antidiabetic drugs—including metformin and insulin analogs—for their abilities to boost proliferation or increase migration of cancer cells in vitro. The researchers showed that DPP-4 inhibitors promoted migration and invasion but not proliferation of melanoma, hepatic, colon, breast, lung, and ovarian human cancer cell lines.
	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
Redhead Gene Doubles Melanoma Risk, Without Sun [DNA Science Blog] The finding that variants of a gene can increase risk for, and possibly even directly cause, melanoma even in the absence of the accepted major risk factor – UV radiation – has clinical implications both obvious and subtle.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
European Parliament backs glyphosate but with conditions [Reuters] European politicians advised on Wednesday that the herbicide glyphosate should only be approved for another seven years, rather than the 15 proposed by the EU executive, and should not be used by the general public.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Theranos debacle may scare investors away from diagnostic technology [STAT] Theranos defied convention as an early-stage company. It attracted far more investment and media attention than its peers, because of its potential to disrupt an entire industry and its compelling origin story.
	4.10 Dép., diag. & prono. - FDA, EMA, NICE,...
Epigenomics receives FDA approval for Epi proColon® [Epigenomics] First and only blood-based colorectal cancer screening test approved by the FDA.
	5. Traitements
Implantable device targets pancreatic cancer [MIT News] This thin, flexible film could also be adapted to treat other hard-to-reach tumors, according to the researchers, who described the device in the journal Biomaterials.
Cancer therapy: an evolved approach [Nature News & Comment] Tumours are subject to the same rules of natural selection as any other living thing. Clinicians are now putting that knowledge to use.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Inside Sean Parker's $250 Million Bet To Cure Cancer [Fast Company] Parker asks every researcher who wants to get involved about the projects they wish they were doing (a very Silicon Valley question). He says he wants to fund the ideas that have been deemed "too complicated or too ambitious" for the status quo.
Cocktails for cancer with a measure of immunotherapy [Nature News & Comment] Researchers are so ravenous for those data that the results are being unveiled at major meetings at an earlier stage than in the past, he adds. “People are getting up and presenting response rates when the number treated is five,” Garon says. “We generally have had a higher threshold than that.”
Sean Parker’s put up big bucks for cancer. We’ve got questions [STAT] “People like Biden and Sean Parker should have stepped back and looked at long-term investments as well, specifically the type that will ensure that cancer research careers once again become attractive to students early in their careers.”
	5.2 Pharma
FDA Accepts Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer, and Grants Priority Review [Merck] Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), the company’s anti-PD-1 therapy, for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
U.S. Drug Spending Climbs [Wall Street Journal] IMS said over half of total spending growth in 2015 was on brands that have been available for less than two years, including treatments for cancer and diabetes.
U.S. prescription drug spending to hit $400 billion a year by 2020: IMS [Reuters] U.S. oncology drug spending reached $39.1 billion in 2015, an 18-percent jump.
	5.9 AACR
Myriad Genetics Announces Presentations at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting [AACR] The data will highlight early clinical trials of PARP inhibitors targeting the DNA repair pathway and the use of novel biomarkers to select patients for treatment.
Bayer to Present New Data on Advancing Oncology Portfolio [Bayer] With a total of four oral and 35 poster presentations introducing results from oncology research and early development by Bayer and in cooperation with partner organizations, Bayer has steadily increased its AACR presence over the last years.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Stand Up To Cancer Launches “Catalyst,” a New Research Program Supported by Industry [AACR] Under the SU2C Catalyst program, companies like Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech will donate funds to support collaborative research studies using products the companies will provide, such as new pharmaceutical compounds that they are developing or approved agents that can be investigated for other uses.
	6.1 Observation
Potential effects of fertility treatments on breast density and cancer risk [Karolinska Institutet] The researchers selected 43313 women aged between 40 and 69 years, who had mammograms as part of the KARMA project between 2010 and 2013.
Only Half of Advanced Rectal Cancer Patients Receive Standard Therapy [ACS] Several factors were found to be associated with a lower chance of receiving the standard treatment: being treated at a facility with low or medium case volume; being of other than non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity; lack of private insurance; and residence in a neighborhood with a lower education background.
Obesity behind big rise in womb cancer [Cancer Research UK] The science behind how extra weight can cause cancer is not completely clear. But there is evidence that extra fat in the body can raise cancer risk by producing hormones and growth factors that encourage cells to divide.
	6.10 Politiques
Children’s cancer research is often ignored. Make it a ‘moonshot’ priority [STAT] The decades of productive life awaiting boys and girls cured of cancer should be reward enough for ensuring that children have a place in the cancer moonshot.
Commander-in-Chief of War on Cancer Assesses 'Moonshot' [Medpage Today] He also had a cautionary tale for the cancer advocacy community. In 1998 NIH won a funding increase that led to a doubling of its budget over 5 years -- but unwrapping that funding package turned out to be a very painful process because government funding has to be spent in the year it is allotted and cannot be rolled over.
	6.5 Médecines alternatives
Beetroots Don’t Cure Cancer [Science-Based Medicine] If you dig even slightly below the surface of the narrative, it starts to fall completely apart. There is no cure for all cancer. No treatment is 100% effective. Cancer is too complex for a lone researcher to find a cure, without a mountain of research leading the way – research that would require collaboration, resources, and create a paper trail.
	6.6 Publications
Data Citation Standards: Progress, But Slow Progress [The Scholarly Kitchen] Making the data behind research papers publicly available remains something of a new frontier, both for publishers and for authors.
Three Things Scholarly Publishers Should Know About Researchers [The Scholarly Kitchen] - We want things to be more streamlined. - We want wider recognition for our efforts. - We don’t want to feel exploited; we want to trust that you share our goals.
	6.7.2 Applis
Health apps: Unlimited promise or 'like having a really bad doctor' [LA Times] Mobile health technology developers will have to deal with rules just as the ride-sharing services did when taking on the taxi industry, he said — but to an even greater degree.