Onco Actu du 1er juillet 2016

	1. Biologie
Biomedical researchers lax about validating antibodies for experiments [Nature News & Comment] Nearly one-third of junior scientists spend no time validating antibodies, even though accurate results depend on these reagents working as expected.
	2. Etiologie
Persistent HPV Infection Raises Risk of Anal and Genital Cancers [AACR] Kjær said that while the connection between HPV and cervical cancer is well known, the results of this study add anogenital cancers to the list of potential long-range consequences of HPV infection and could add to support for vaccination against the virus.
	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
New genetic findings help explain inherited predisposition to myeloma [The Institute of Cancer Research] Researchers have identified eight new genetic variations in the human genome that could be linked to an increased risk of developing myeloma. The findings provide additional evidence, and build on existing research that suggests myeloma can run in families.
	5. Traitements
New ovarian cancer drugs raise hope — but not for all [STAT] The international study enrolled more than 500 women with recurring ovarian cancer and found the drug “significantly prolonged” the amount of time before tumors started growing again, necessitating another round of chemotherapy, though it did not look at whether patients lived longer on the drug.
Leukaemia drug shows potential for rare type of ovarian cancer [Cancer Research UK] Scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London found that ovarian cancer cells in mice stopped growing after they were given a drug called dasatinib.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
Bristol-Myers Squibb and PsiOxus Therapeutics Announce Immuno-Oncology Clinical Collaboration to Evaluate the Combination of Opdivo and Enadenotucirev [BMS] Enadenotucirev is designed to have immune stimulating effects while Opdivo is designed to alleviate immune suppression. The clinical collaboration will support Phase 1 studies to determine whether combining these two agents can significantly improve the proportion of patients achieving objective tumor responses, the extent of tumor shrinkage, and/or the durability of responses.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
Drug and device makers paid $6.5 billion to docs and teaching hospitals last year [STAT] Novartis topped the list with more than $539 million reported in payments to health care providers, a big jump from $302 million in 2014, according to the Open Payments database maintained by the US Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
Pazdur to Head New Oncology Center at FDA [RAPS] The announcement comes just weeks after a group of 28 cancer groups, including the nonprofit Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR), sent a letter to FDA calling for the agency to create such a center to oversee all oncology products.
Riding Moonshot, FDA Will Revamp Its Cancer Practice. To What End? [Xconomy] Pazdur’s post about the new oncology center was vague on details and long on descriptors like “cross-disciplinary” and “integrative” and, of course, “innovation.” Until more details emerge, gleaning the effect of yet another reorganization will be guess work.
Brexit Creating a Period of Uncertainty for EU, UK Drug and Device Regulators [RAPS] “At this point the UK government has not yet initiated the treaty process (Article 50) for withdrawing from the EU,” Woods said. “We therefore have no knowledge of the future EU and UK negotiating positions, which will determine what might be retained of the present medicines and medical devices regulatory systems. It is probably not helpful to speculate on the details until the broad outlines have been drawn.”
Strengthening interaction with academia [EMA] EMA consults academia in preparation of a framework of collaboration.
Leveraging the Power of Collaboration – FDA’s New Oncology Center of Excellence [FDA Voice] This new center will be a place where the combined skills of regulatory scientists and reviewers with oncology clinical expertise in drugs, biologics, and devices will come together to support an integrated approach to the advancement of cancer treatment.
Top Officials Aim To Reshape The FDA To Prepare For 'Avalanche' Of Cancer Products [Forbes] Previously, Pazdur had authority over the pills and antibodies developed by companies like Roche, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb But diagnostic tests, from firms like Illumina and Foundation Medicine, are likely to be just as important. And now companies like Novartis , Juno Therapeutics and Kite Pharmaceuticals are developing genetically engineered cells that hunt down and kill cancer–products that would be reviewed by yet another FDA division.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Bill Gates Calls U.S. Drug Pricing System ‘Better Than Most’ [Bloomberg] “The current system is better than most other systems one can imagine,” Gates said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “The drug companies are turning out miracles, and we need their R&D budgets to stay strong. They need to see the opportunity.”
Is There a Cure for High Drug Prices? [Consumer Reports] The cost of prescription drugs for tens of millions of Americans rose $2 billion last year, and all signs point to a continued rise. At stake is nothing less than the ability of Americans to afford the medicines they need. Can we stop the madness?
	5.6 ESMO
World GI 2016 Press Release: Regorafenib Shows Significant Survival Gains in Refractory Liver Cancer [ESMO] Phase III trial confirms efficacy and safety of new second-line agent.
World GI 2016 Press Release: Chemoradiotherapy After Surgery for Gastric Cancer Shows Similar Outcomes to Post-Operative Chemotherapy [ESMO] Phase III trial finds no significant difference in overall survival.
	6.1 Observation
Melanoma diagnoses hit 10,000 a year for over 55s [Cancer Research UK] For the first time in the UK, more than 10,000 people aged 55 and over were diagnosed with malignant melanoma - the most dangerous form of skin cancer - in a single year, according to the latest figures released by Cancer Research UK. This compares with around 3,100 cases diagnosed in the UK 20 years ago.
Aging Population Is Growing Ranks of Cancer Survivors [AACR] They projected U.S. cancer prevalence from 2016 to 2040 by using U.S. Census Bureau data, and applying the Prevalence Incidence Approach Model. SEER data linked with Medicare claims were used to estimate comorbidities commonly experienced in older adults, including health conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, or diabetes.
Skin cancer rise warning for over 55s [BBC News] Skin cancer rates in Scotland have more than doubled among those aged 55 and over in the past 20 years, a leading charity has reported.
	6.10 Politiques
Science minister says he's watching out for post-Brexit 'discrimination' against U.K. researchers [Science] Jo Johnson did not lay out a long-term future for U.K. science post-Brexit today, and said nothing to alleviate universities' worries that they will eventually lose European funding or talented researchers.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
Biden should take a note from the ‘original moonshot’ — focus on just one cancer [STAT] Focusing the billion-dollar cancer moonshot on curing one cancer that so far cannot be successfully treated with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy would demonstrate the same “dedication, organization and discipline” that took mankind to such literal and figurative heights in 1969.
Firsthand Account: The Biden Moonshot Summit [Forbes] While it’s hardly news to point out the degree of frustration associated with the sharing of clinical health data, I was struck by the abiding pessimism that sharing is going to improve on its own any time soon–that somehow the problem (seen by almost everyone as fundamentally cultural, not technical) is going to “work itself out.”
The Cancer Moonshot Summit: Reaching New Heights [National Cancer Institute] The summit also provided a platform for highlighting seven NCI-related activities that were stimulated by the Cancer Moonshot’s call to action. These activities are representative of the kinds of initiatives envisioned under this historic program.
	6.6 Publications
Brexit: Risks to the Knowledge Economy and the Money Scrum [The Scholarly Kitchen] Perhaps more importantly, we should be concerned about what this means for our customers in academia in the UK. With a substantial portion of their funding on the line, we must be sure to remain agile and attentive to potential shifts in the market.
Publisher under fire for fake article webpages [Nature News & Comment] 'Trap’ URLs can help publishers to catch automated downloading, but critics say that the approach is clumsy.
	6.9 Controverses
Expertology [In the Pipeline] What to do, then, about “Matter for Experts” decisions where the people affected by them aren’t experts themselves? That’s where the “right to try” laws fit, I believe, and many other issues as well in a large, developed country like ours.
Will Precision Medicine Improve Public Health? [YouTube] In this session, Dr. Muin J. Khoury (Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Dr. Sandro Galea (Dean & Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health) give alternating viewpoints on whether the field of public health will be accelerated and improved with the new era of precision medicine.