Onco Actu du 13 mai 2016

	1. Biologie
Tissue repair and cancer: how not to inflame the neighbours [The Institute of Cancer Research] The human body has remarkable abilities to repair itself after illness and damage, but these same mechanisms could help cancer bounce back from treatments designed to kill cancer cells.
MGH study identifies potential treatment target for pancreatic cancer [Massachusetts General Hospital] Along with finding that the tumor suppressor protein SIRT6 is inactive in around 30 percent of cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the team identified the precise pathway by which SIRT6 suppresses PDAC development, a mechanism different from the way it suppresses colorectal cancer.
	1.1 Biologie - Gènes
Genetics: On the heredity trail [Nature] Despite its subtitle ('An Intimate History'), the historical sections of The Gene, ranging from 1860 to the present, are not intended to show the convoluted route to current knowledge. They are primarily a tool for explaining the basics of medical genetics.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
Germany looks set to abstain in EU glyphosate vote [Reuters] Germany's conservatives (CDU) and their junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD) cannot agree on a common position. If the German government cannot reach agreement, it will abstain from voting.
	3.1.1 Tabac - e-cigs
Smoke & mirrors or harm reduction breakthrough? A compiliation of verdicts on electronic cigarettes [Croakey] Croakey thanks Stan Shatenstein, editor and publisher of Smoking & Tobacco Abstracts & News, an electronic bulletin devoted to smoking and health issues, for permission to cross-publish from his news bulletin this compilation of recent research and comments on e-cigs and tobacco control.
E-cigarette ban lifted by Nottingham hospital trust [BBC News] "We're now allowing e-cigarettes on our grounds to give our patients, staff and visitors more choice in how they quit smoking."
	5.2 Pharma
Feds probing Clovis’ stunning--and questionable--take on roci data [FierceBiotech] Clovis’ 10-Q filed with the SEC this week notes that unidentified federal agencies are probing the event, which raised a number of questions about just how honest the company was with investors as it posted a strong but erroneous set of data in the New England Journal of Medicine last year.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
Harvard Medical School eases rule on faculty ties to industry [STAT] Harvard Medical School is relaxing a conflict-of-interest policy that prohibits some researchers from conducting clinical trials on new treatments when they have a financial stake in the company developing them.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
G1 Therapeutics Hauls in $47M for Lung, Breast Cancer Trials [Xconomy] The G1 drug is what’s called a CDK4/6 inhibitor, and it works by impeding the activity of a pair of enzymes (cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6).
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Nivolumab for previously treated locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer [ID900] : Appraisal consultation [NICE] Nivolumab is not recommended for treating locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer in adults whose disease has progressed after chemotherapy.
European Regulators Drawn Into Debate on Drug Pricing [RAPS] The EU experts lay out four possible ways for regulators to either directly or indirectly take steps to lower the cost of pharmaceuticals, though they also say that these steps may not be readily implementable in the US due to its legislative framework.
	5.5 ASCO
Kantar Health Spotlights Key Abstracts at ASCO 2016 [The OBR Blog] Vyxeos as induction for older patients with untreated high-risk (secondary) AML Immunotherapy in head and neck cancer Darzalex plus VelDex in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (CASTOR Kadcyla + Perjeta as neoadjuvant therapy in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer (KRISTINE)
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Post-mortem cancer study goes national [Cancer Research UK] “Until this study, we really didn’t have any way nationally to take samples from multiple sites of cancer within a patient at the end of their life. This study will help us complete the whole cancer picture – from diagnosis to death – that we need, in order to understand how it changes and evolves over time and how drug resistance occurs.”
The Mysterious Story Of A Boy Who Survived A Rare And Deadly Cancer [Scope Blog] The entire story is worth reading, as the writer does an excellent job capturing the complicated choices that Andrew’s parents faced and the difficult emotional dimension of their experience.
Cancer samples from dead patients sought for new study [BBC News] The aim is to find out how tumours develop and spread and what happens during the final stages of the disease. The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, is looking for more than 500 patients to sign up.
The Health Issue: An Old Idea, Revived: Starve Cancer to Death [NY Times] Warburg framed a quote from Max Planck and hung it above his desk: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die.”
The Health Issue: Learning From the Lazarus Effect [NY Times] Today patients like Grace have come to be known as exceptional responders, and cancer researchers have finally begun to unravel the puzzles they pose.
The Health Issue: The Improvisational Oncologist [NY Times] Medicine needs standards, of course, otherwise it can ramble into dangerous realms, compromising safety and reliability. But cancer medicine also needs a healthy dose of Freireich: the desire to read between the (guide)lines, to reimagine the outer boundaries, to perform the experiments that become the standards of the future.
The Health Issue: When Do You Give Up on Treating a Child With Cancer? [NY Times] How could cancer spontaneously disappear? “It does feel a bit like a miracle,” says Jennifer Willert, the transplant doctor, echoing the sentiments of others. Noting the rare evocation of a concept that stands outside science, Loken says: “It certainly defied our expectations with no discernible basis of happening. I guess this may be the definition of a miracle.”
	6.1 Observation
More than two years of missed NHS cancer targets and real people are still being left in limbo [Cancer Research UK] Despite the NHS in England promising that at least 85 per cent of people should start their treatment for cancer within two months of an urgent referral from their GP, this target has been missed constantly since the beginning of 2014. And the latest figures, published today, aren’t pretty.
How much palliative care breast cancer patients get may depend on race [Reuters] Researchers examined data from Medicare, the U.S. government health program for the elderly, for 752 white and 131 black patients with final-stage breast cancer who died from 2007 to 2012.
	6.10 Politiques
Colombian health minister is warned not to sidestep Novartis patent [STAT] The flare-up is the latest example of an ongoing clash between the global pharmaceutical industry and some governments over intellectual property rights and access to affordable medicines.
Experts Decry Tying Medical Research Funds to FDA Standards Changes [Wall Street Journal] “This is the first time this has been done this way, and it’s a deal with the devil,” said Dr. David A. Kessler, onetime FDA commissioner during the 1990s under presidents of both parties. “It’s time to uncouple the promise of research funding from the requirement that FDA standards be lowered.”
	6.4 Médico-éco
Cancer Research UK invests £16 million into hard to treat cancers [Cancer Research UK] Cancer Research UK is investing in four UK-wide collaborations to inspire new approaches to understanding and treating cancers with low survival.
Larry Ellison Donates $200 Million for Cancer Research [The Scientist] The Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine will be led by USC Professor of Medicine and Engineering David Agus, and will combine diverse fields of research.
	6.6 Publications
“I shared:” Can tagging papers that share data boost the practice? [Retraction Watch] In January 2014, Psychological Science began rewarding digital badges to authors who committed to open science practices such as sharing the data and materials. A study published today in PLOS Biology looks at whether publicizing such behavior helps encourage others to follow their leads.
Digital badges motivate scientists to share data [Nature News & Comment] A simple signal may incentivize researchers to make data and materials publicly available.
	6.9 Controverses
Epigenetics For the Spirit [In the Pipeline] Michael Eisen has a good piece on this as well. And he makes a larger point that’s worth keeping in mind, that the word “epigenetics” isn’t just being abused in the wider press. It’s been abused by scientists as well.