Onco Actu du 2 décembre 2016

	1. Biologie
Why Testicular Tumors Are So Vulnerable to Getting Hit with Chemo [GEN] To learn why testicular cancer is, in most cases, highly curable with chemotherapy, scientists based at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute examined the genomic features of germ-cell tumors (GCTs), which are derived from germ cells and occur most frequently in testes.
	2. Etiologie
Why disrupted body clocks trigger liver cancer [The Economist] Dr Fu and Dr Moore knew from their previous research that disrupting the circadian rhythms of mice causes the rodents’ livers to overproduce this substance. They also knew that liver cancer commonly appears in mice engineered to lack certain genes required for the management of day-night cycles.
	2.10 Etiologie - Alcool
Alcohol Intake Associated with Increased Risk of Melanoma [AACR] Cho pointed out that modest alcohol intake has been connected with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. “For drinkers, risks and benefits of alcohol consumption have to be considered individually, including the risk related to skin cancer,” she said.
	3.1 Tabac
On the pleasure of smoking [The Conversation] The argument that smoking and inhaling nicotine is “pleasurable” is a bit like saying being beaten up every day is something you want to continue with, because hey, it feels so good when the beating stops for a while.
BAT Bets on Vaping as Tobacco Makers Do Battle With New Devices [Bloomberg] According to Kingsley Wheaton, head of BAT’s next-generation products, longer-established electronic smokes hold more promise than the heat-not-burn technology pioneered by its main rival.
	3.7 Alcool
Minimum alcohol pricing gets backing of UK government's health advisers [The Guardian] Its publication, by Public Health England (PHE), is an embarrassment for ministers because it says they should embrace a policy that they have rejected due to an alleged lack of evidence.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Next Generation: Observing Cancer-Associated Mitochondrial Changes [The Scientist] Unfortunately, “the laser we use to do this type of imaging is still fairly expensive, close to $100,000 in cost,” Georgakoudi said. Although less-expensive lasers may be on the horizon, the technology in its current state may prove cost-prohibitive for some facilities.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
GRAIL Announces Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA) Study as Foundation for Development of Blood Test to Detect Cancer Early [Grail] Our approach will produce more than a terabyte of data per individual thereby creating datasets of a scale and complexity that are unprecedented in genomic medicine.
	5. Traitements
Novel Akt inhibitor ipatasertib evidenced as a promising contender for therapy against solid tumors [VHIO] Powerful downmodulation of Akt signaling with ipatasertib proves effective and tolerable in subgroup of patients who have developed resistance to standard therapies.
Research says: Patients with cancer history experiencing severe heart attacks benefit from cardiac treatment [Mayo Clinic] Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 2,346 patients seen at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus for an ST-elevation myocardial infarction ― the most severe acute heart attack.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Niraparib Maintenance Therapy in Ovarian Cancer [Now@NEJM] A randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial conducted by Mirza et al. evaluated the efficacy and safety of niraparib versus placebo as maintenance treatment in a broad population of patients with platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
A disruptive billionaire with a yen for innovation herds top researchers into a neoantigen cancer coalition [EndPoints] Dubbed TESLA, for Tumor neoantigEn SeLection Alliance (a twist on acronyms), the coalition will bring together academic and industry researchers who will use their own, individual algorithms to spot the unique neoantigens that appear on individual patients’ cancer cells in order to develop a personalized cell therapy specifically for that individual.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Bluebird, Celgene jump off to a promising start in the marathon race to develop a CAR-T for multiple myeloma [EndPoints] The numbers for bluebird are small and preliminary, but in this field small and preliminary are still important milestones when you’re hoping to advance an important new way to treat multiple myeloma.
	5.2 Pharma
FDA Grants Priority Review to Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in Relapsed or Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma [Merck] This is the first application for regulatory approval of KEYTRUDA in a hematologic malignancy.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
IBM unveils Watson for drug R&D, teams with Pfizer on oncology [FierceBiotech] IBM is launching the latest addition to the Watson family: Watson for Drug Discovery, which will use cognitive computing to help researchers zero in on new drug targets. First up is a collaboration with Pfizer, which will use the tech to boost its immuno-oncology research.
AstraZeneca in broad drug deal with Bicycle worth up to $1 bln [Reuters] For AstraZeneca, the deal expands its drug discovery capacity in core therapeutic areas outside oncology.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
Round 2 in Boehringer’s US reorganization will claim another 244 jobs, including small molecule group [EndPoints] As a company, Boehringer has no trouble drawing the curtains when it’s making changes. That tactic was employed just two months ago, when Boehringer announced that it was dropping a pact with South Korea’s Hanmi on the cancer drug olmutinib, without mentioning that the drug had been linked to severe toxicity.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Workshop on adaptive pathways – discussion on development approach for medicines addressing unmet medical needs [EMA] Event to be broadcast live on 8 December.
Simpler website navigation for regulatory information on human medicines [EMA] New navigation to help users find information more easily.
Cancer drugs may remain approved despite lack of benefit [Reuters] "In following the principle of 'first, do no harm,' the FDA should promptly withdraw approval for cancer drugs that are proven to have no clinical benefit," JAMA Internal Medicine editors Drs. Scott Bauer and Rita Redberg write in a note accompanying the new study.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
NICE recommends new lung cancer drug pembrolizumab [NICE] “If companies work with us to price drugs reasonably and manage any uncertainties in the evidence base, we can continue to recommend patients have routine access to the treatments they need.”
Merck wins UK okay for Keytruda in lung cancer after price cut [Reuters] Keytruda is already approved as a cost-effective treatment in melanoma but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) had initially blocked its use in lung cancer.
	5.9.4 ENA
EORTC-NCI-AACR 2016: Liquid Biopsies Identify Molecular Alterations Driving GI Cancer Drug Resistance in Nearly 80% of Patients [ASCO Post] In 31 patients, this liquid biopsy program identified a molecular alteration driving resistance in nearly 80% of patients, and half of these patients were found to have multiple alterations detectable in the blood.
Phase I trial shows that a drug that inhibits the Notch signalling process is active in a range of advanced cancers [ECCO] Patients in the trial had a range of cancers, including breast, colon, parotid (salivary gland) and sarcoma, which were all advanced or had started to spread to other parts of the body (metastasise). After treatment with LY3039478, the tumour shrank in one patient with breast cancer and the disease stabilised and did not progress in another 29 patients.
Advanced soft tissue sarcomas respond to a combination of a new and an existing anti-cancer drug [ECCO] By inhibiting CHK1, the drug prevents tumour cells recovering from DNA damage and they die. Combining GDC-0575 with gemcitabine, a cancer-killing drug that is already used for treating sarcomas, proved remarkably effective.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
21st Century Cures Act will distort the meaning of ‘FDA approved’ [STAT] The most recent version of the 21st Century Cures Act has a new addition: prompting the FDA to approve new regenerative therapies based on clinical anecdotes and surrogate endpoints like shrinkage of a tumor instead of clinically relevant outcomes like longer survival or improved quality of life.
21st Century Cures Act supporters crush meager House opposition, head to a final showdown in the Senate [EndPoints] Opponents, who will now rally around Senator Elizabeth Warren in a last-ditch stand to stop the bill, see it as an early Christmas present for the industry, festooned with gifts that include lowered standards on drug and device approvals, including a “real world evidence” procedure that would substitute summaries of observational data in place of a complete read out on the clinical trial data — the gold standard in drug development.
Maryland congressman in running to head NIH? [Science] Harris says that as NIH director, “I'd build on what 21st Century Cures started but use the position of the director to push these ideas even further.”
US health-reform legislation clears big hurdle [Nature] The 21st Century Cures Act would reshape drug regulation and biomedical research.
	6.11 Patients
More research volunteers are getting their medical test results. Should we cheer — or worry? [STAT] The research establishment has long opposed giving volunteers access to their data, even though that’s supposed to be part of the arrangement. Some worry that it’s too easy for laypeople to misinterpret test results, while others maintain that it’s a waste of resources to organize data for individual review.