Onco Actu du 15 septembre 2016

	1. Biologie
Born to be bad? [The evolution and Medicine Review] Their longitudinal study, they say, reveals a new picture of the dynamics of carcinogenesis in Barrett’s where the clonal make-up and evolutionary trajectory of the lesion is predetermined from the outset. Recognizing that only a subset of non-dysplastic Barrett’s are ‘born to be bad’ offers new hope for effective risk stratification of this challenging patient group.
	3.1 Tabac
FDA Advisory Committees Recommend to Remove Boxed Warning in Labeling for Pfizer’s Smoking Cessation Therapy, CHANTIX® (varenicline) [Pfizer] "We are pleased with the Committees' recommendation to remove the boxed warning and believe this is an important step toward updating the CHANTIX labeling to more accurately reflect its neuropsychiatric safety profile and help patients and prescribers make informed decisions about treatment options."
FDA panel votes to remove serious warning from Pfizer’s smoking cessation pill [STAT] Whether the FDA follows the recommendation of the advisory committee is uncertain. The agency is not obligated to do so and the vote was not straightforward — 10 committee members agreed the Black Box warning should be removed, while four voted to modify the labeling, and five voted the warning should remain intact.
FDA panel recommends dropping serious warning on Pfizer's Chantix [Reuters] Pfizer's Chantix was approved about a decade ago, but thousands of reports of mental health problems in users led to the FDA imposing the "black box" warning - the most severe available - in 2009.
	3.1.1 Tabac - e-cigs
E-cigarettes 'help thousands successfully quit smoking' [NHS Choices] Questions remain about whether e-cigarettes are really safe. While there's still work to do on this, Public Health England estimates the aids are 95% safer than using tobacco cigarettes.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Transport Oncophysics and Pancreatic Cancer [MD Anderson] Quantitative imaging assessment of transport properties could guide treatment for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.
Strengthening the foundations for early detection [Cancer Research UK] To oversee our renewed focus on early detection, we recently appointed a Director of Population and Early Detection Research – Dr Zahid Latif. And he thinks that the true challenge of early detection is finding the most reliable ‘red flags’ that need further investigation in a health care setting.
	4.1 Dép., diag. & prono. - Prostate
Despite thumbs down from professional groups, mass prostate cancer screening events continue, often with misleading promotions [HealthNewsReview] It’s hard to know what’s motivating the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., to hold a prostate cancer screening event later this month, but we know what’s not motivating them: the evidence.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Counting cancer cells in blood could be key to telling whether prostate cancer treatment is working [The Institute of Cancer Research] Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, with international collaborators, analysed blood samples from 486 men with advanced prostate cancer before treatment and then afterwards at four-week intervals.
	5. Traitements
High-capacity nanoparticle [MIT News] Particles that carry three or more drugs hold potential for targeted cancer therapy.
BET inhibitor tamps down PD-L1 activity in ovarian cancer cells [FierceBiotech] Wistar Institute scientists have found a class of drugs that effectively dampened PD-L1 activity in ovarian cancer, even though it does not directly target PD-L1. Called bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) inhibitors, multiple candidates are in clinical trials for other cancers.
Drug that targets stem cells could help treat leukaemia [Cancer Research UK] The drug was shown to kill more than 90 per cent of chronic myeloid leukaemia stem cells in mice, says the study in the journal Cancer Discovery.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
New study compares surgery, radiation, and active surveillance in prostate cancer [ACS] This study has just ten years of data, and it may take 20 or 25 years to see survival improvements from treatment, so we cannot say yet with certainty whether and how much of an advantage treatment has over no treatment. We can only say that at ten years, there is no difference.
Men with early prostate cancer can safely opt out of treatment, finds landmark study [STAT] The conflicting conclusions that experts draw from the same data reflects the fact that the cancer world “is rather polarized,” said epidemiologist Jenny Donovan of the University of Bristol, who helped lead the study. But with the nearly 100 percent rate of survival with treatment or monitoring, “men do not need to rush to make a decision about treatment.”
Prostate Cancer Screening Trial Shows PSA Screening Works! Sort of...... [Forbes] It is worth considering why the ProtecT trial might not show a prostate cancer mortality benefit. The answer is relatively straightforward. Over 60% of the actively monitored group actually saw treatment. Yes. I will re-phrase here to let that sink in.
Monitoring of prostate cancer as effective as treatment in some cases [The Guardian] Localised prostate cancer sufferers have same survival rate after 10 years as those who have surgery, according to study.
Prostate Cancer Study Details Value of Treatments [NY Times] Dr. Scardino said the findings helped confirm that active monitoring is a valuable approach for many men. He said that it was appropriate for a third to a half of men with early prostate cancers, and that only a third of those patients would need treatment within 10 years.
For prostate cancer, monitoring is an option, but higher metastasis rate is a risk [LA Times] At the 10-year mark, the findings of the Protect Trial (short for Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment) failed to find clear evidence that participants who were assigned to get active surveillance were more likely to die of cancer than were those who got early, aggressive treatment.
	5.2 Pharma
Richard Gaynor retires from Lilly Oncology; Dana-Farber’s Garraway steps up [FierceBiotech] Dr. Garraway, a founder of Foundation Medicine, a cancer genomics and diagnostics company, has also won the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and is the author of nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles.
Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., to become Senior Vice President of Global Oncology at Lilly, Succeeding Richard Gaynor, M.D., Who is Retiring after a Distinguished Career [Lilly] Dr. Garraway is currently associate professor of medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, an associate physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
How GlaxoSmithKline Took Its Medicine [Forbes] The maddening problem for pharmaceutical chief executives is that their tenures will be judged on the results of decisions made decades before they took command.
	5.2.2 Pharma - Fusions & Acquisitions
Takeda sets aside $15B for U.S. buys after topsy-turvy R&D week: FT [FierceBiotech] The FT reports that Japan’s biggest pharma has told investors that it wants to buy U.S. companies that will fit in with its new R&D focus, and “has set aside $10bn to $15bn for acquisitions,” which could go toward one large deal or several smaller ones, the people said as quoted by the financial paper.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA,...
Spectrum bladder cancer drug not effective: U.S. FDA panel [Reuters] The FDA is not obliged to follow the advice of its advisory committees but typically does so. The agency is scheduled to make its decision by Dec. 11. Apaziquone is inserted directly into the bladder following surgery to remove tumors. In 2012, two late-stage clinical trials failed to meet their main goal.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
EU approval for Eisai kidney cancer treatment [PharmaFile] The European Commission has approved the use of Eisai’s Kisplyx (lenvatinib) for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following one prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) targeted therapy, when used in combination with everolimus (Novartis' Afinitor).
European Commission approves Ipsen’s Cabometyx™ (cabozantinib) Tablets for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in adults following prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy [Ipsen] Cabometyx™ (cabozantinib) is the first and only targeted therapy to improve Overall survival (OS), Objective Response Rate (ORR), and Progression Free Survival (PFS) in RCC in METEOR randomized Phase 3 trial.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
The Impact and Future of the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study: An Interview with Greg Armstrong, M.D. [NCI] The original study population included survivors diagnosed between 1970-1986. In the last year, we have expanded the cohort to include survivors diagnosed between 1987-1999, increasing the number of participants from 14,000 to more than 24,000.
	6.10 Politiques
UN panel urges wider access to medicines, but pharma slams the report [STAT] The Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America was not pleased, though. The industry trade group called the report a “a missed opportunity to address the wide array of barriers to access that far too many people face every day.”
U.N. panel challenges market-based approach to drug R&D [Reuters] The world cannot rely solely on free markets to deliver medicines needed by billions of people in poor countries, so governments should commit to a legally binding convention to coordinate and fund research and development.
	6.9 Controverses
The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists [Vox] Before we jump in, some caveats to keep in mind: Our survey was not a scientific poll. For one, the respondents disproportionately hailed from the biomedical and social sciences and English-speaking communities. Many of the responses did, however, vividly illustrate the challenges and perverse incentives that scientists across fields face.