Onco Actu du 15 avril 2016

	1. Biologie
Genomic makeup of colorectal cancers predicts immune system ability to fight tumors, study suggests [Dana-Farber Cancer Institute] By showing that tumors with high antigen loads are apt to be laced with T cells – and therefore to have provoked an immune response – the study may help investigators identify which patients are most likely to benefit in new clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
	2.11 Etiologie - Alimentation
After Years of Debate, FDA Proposes to Withdraw Carbadox from Medicated Swine Feed [FDA Law Blog] It has been known that carbadox was a carcinogen since before it was first approved in 1972.
	3.1 Tabac
Cigarette Smoking and Prostate Cancer Mortality in Four US States, 1999–2010 [CDC] This study suggests that declines in prostate cancer mortality rates may be a beneficial effect of reduced smoking in the population.
Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2015 [MMWR-CDC] However, the lack of decline in use of cigarettes and cigars from 2014 to 2015 is concerning, as approximately 80% of adult smokers first try smoking by age 18 years. Furthermore, because of increases in the use of emerging tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, no decline occurred in tobacco use overall during 2011–2015.
E-Cigarette Use by U.S. Teenagers Rose Last Year, Report Says [NY Times] Cigarette smoking overall did not increase, suggesting that, at least so far, fears that the devices would hook a new generation on traditional cigarettes have not come to pass.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
It’s Not Cancer: Doctors Reclassify a Thyroid Tumor [NY Times] As a result, they have officially downgraded the condition, and thousands of patients will be spared removal of their thyroid, treatment with radioactive iodine and regular checkups for the rest of their lives, all to protect against a tumor that was never a threat.
	5. Traitements
Rerouting Cancer [Caltech] In mice, Heath and his team tested seven therapies or therapy combinations that they predicted would—or would not—halt resistance development. The four that they predicted would not work were, indeed, ineffectual; the three they thought would work, did.
Toward Precision Therapy for Children with Cancer [National Cancer Institute] Based on the results of a new study, NCI is launching a clinical program called ClinOmics, which will use genomic approaches to help guide the treatment of patients with cancer who are treated at the NIH Clinical Center.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Patient advocates urge action on clinical trials reporting [STAT] “Patient advocacy groups across the US are very concerned with the disregard for human life, patient safety, transparency, and accountability the NIH, and the FDA, have shown by not enforcing timely reporting of” clinical trial results, the advocates wrote in a January letter to NIH director Dr. Francis Collins.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Gene editing could stop cancer cells escaping the immune system [Cancer Research UK] “We know that some cancers can switch off the cells of our immune system, and this interesting laboratory research suggests a new way that we might be able to get around the problem, although this is still some way away from use in the clinic”.
Gene-editing Tool Can Improve Efficacy of Adoptive T-cell Immunotherapy [AACR] The gene-editing tool TALEN can be used to inactivate PD-1-mediated immunosuppression and enhance the efficacy of a type of immunotherapy called adoptive T-cell transfer against solid tumors, according to a preclinical study published in Cancer Research.
Gene editing 'boosts' cancer-killing cells [BBC News] In experiments on melanoma and fibrosarcoma, mouse survival increased from less than 20% after 60 days without treatment to more than 70% with treatment.
Sleeping immune cells in tumours can be 'woken up' to fight cancer [The Telegraph] The treatment would work by taking a biopsy of a tumour and then identify immune cells that are already inside. Those cells are likely to me most effective as the fact that they are in the tumour suggests they were trying to attack it before they got switched off. Scientists then use a genetic editing technique called TALEN to remove the ‘off switch’. The edited immune cells are then multiplied in a lab and replaced back in the body.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
T cell compatible cancer chemotherapy synergizes with cancer adjuvant vaccine [NIHilist's Immunology] In summary, this study indicates that CarboTaxol chemotherapy augments, rather than inhibits, tumor-specific T cell priming in response to HPV16-SLP vaccination.
Immuno-Oncology Combinations [Citeline] As a follow-up to the last webinar on immuno-oncology combinations, Citeline has produced this infographic to highlight some additional aspects of these combinations that were not covered in the webinar.
	5.2 Pharma
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Accepts for Priority Review Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Supplemental Biologics License Application for Opdivo® (nivolumab) for the Treatment of Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients [BMS] Opdivo has potential to become first PD-1 inhibitor approved for a hematological malignancy in United States.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
Promoting high-quality clinical research to develop more and better medicines for children [EMA] EMA workshop scheduled for 2 June 2016 opens for registration.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
EC approves Opdivo in NSCLC and advanced kidney cancer [European Pharmaceutical Review] This significantly broadens the current label for nivolumab to include the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after prior chemotherapy, in addition to adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have received prior therapy.
	5.6.4 ESMO - Poumon
ELCC 2016 Press Release: Osimertinib Given as First-line Treatment May Alter Biology of EGFR-Mutated Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer [ESMO] The study included 60 patients from two phase I expansion cohorts of the AURA trial that had locally advanced or metastatic EGFR mutated NSCLC.
Osimertinib wows European Lung 2016 [Biotech Strategy Blog] To put this in context, the speed of the osimertinib development rivals - and perhaps even just beats - the accelerated development of iatinib (Gleevec) by Novartis.
ELCC 2016 Press Release: Immunotherapy With Live Bacterium Improves Response Rate in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma [ESMO] This supports the hypothesis of benefit of this vaccination which will be examined in a randomised trial to prove or disprove the survival benefit of vaccination added to chemotherapy.
ELCC 2016 News: Possibility of Overtreatment Linked to Clinically-Diagnosed Early-Stage Lung Cancer [ESMO] Data contained in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry over an 8-year period beginning in 2004 were reviewed. This analysis included data from 7050 patients aged 18 years and older that received only radiation therapy for stage 1, clinical T1a-T2a lung cancer.
ELCC 2016 Press Release: Patients with EGFR Expressing Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Benefit Most from Necitumumab Added to Chemotherapy [ESMO] Our data suggests that for the majority of patients with metastatic disease a plasma test could be sufficient to determine EGFR mutation status particularly when a robust and reliable methodology is used.
ELCC 2016 News: Elderly Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Should Not Be Excluded from Extended Pleurectomy Decortication [ESMO] Rigorous preoperative assessment advisable for older patients with mesothelioma prior to extended pleurectomy decortication.
ELCC 2016 Press Release: Studies Confirm Benefit of Plasma Genotyping to Predict Treatment Benefit in Patients with Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer [ESMO] A surprising result was that some patients were T790M negative in the tumour but T790M positive in the blood test.
	5.9 AACR
Juno Therapeutics Announces Data Presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting [Juno Therapeutics] - First clinical data for the WT-1 TCR product candidate in solid organ tumors - Updated clinical data for CD22 CAR T cell product candidate in pediatric ALL
Caris Life Sciences to Present Key Research Findings at the American Association for Cancer Research 2016 Annual Meeting [Caris Life Sciences] Accepted as a highly significant and scientifically relevant late-breaking abstract, Caris researchers and collaborators developed a unique, non-invasive method of plasma-based exosome profiling that can be utilized to improve the accuracy of breast cancer screening for women.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
ESMO Welcomes Final Version of European Data Protection Regulation [ESMO] “The inclusion of a one-time consent for retrospective research on clinical data and biological tissues is crucial because it means the oldest form of medical research – going back to patient records to analyse and correlate data – can continue to make a contribution today, to solving the challenges of tomorrow.”
	6.1 Observation
62 day waiting time target missed again in England [Cancer Research UK] NHS England aims for 85 per cent of cancer patients to start treatment after being diagnosed. Today’s figures show this is 81 per cent – matching the previous month of January which was one of the worst recorded performances since records began in 2009.
	6.10 Politiques
Brazil president signs law legalizing renegade cancer pill [Science] This was a “political decision inspired by a messianic surge of pseudoscience,” says Gustavo Fernandes, president of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology in Brasília.
	6.11 Patients
Cancer drug labels rarely reflect patient experiences [Reuters] The authors speculate that despite FDA rules encouraging the inclusion of patient experience reports in package insert information, other rules make it difficult to do.
	6.3 Associations
Cancer Research UK shortlists teams for £20m Grand Challenge to tackle cancer’s toughest problems [Cancer Research UK] World-class multi-disciplinary researchers representing 15 countries and 50 organisations have collaborated to make the shortlist.
	6.6 Publications
Why our peer review system is a toothless watchdog [STAT] “In reality, however, peer review is ineffective, largely a lottery, anti-innovatory, slow, expensive, wasteful of scientific time, inefficient, easily abused, prone to bias, unable to detect fraud and irrelevant.”
Biology Papers Are Currency [Mike the Mad Biologist] To put this simply, do you know the difference between a couple of papers in BiorXiv and in journals? $250,000 per year in direct costs from NIH, and somewhere between $75,000 and $125,000 in indirect costs.