Onco Actu du 25 janvier 2017

	1. Biologie
How reproducible is basic lab research in cancer biology? [Science-Based Medicine] I’m not convinced that replicability problems in preclinical research are the major reason why so many drugs that make it to clinical trials fail to be approved by the FDA, given how much conceptual replication goes on before a drug ever makes it to clinical trials in the first place, but certainly it couldn’t hurt.
	1.1 Biologie - Gènes
Study reveals new genetic mechanism driving breast cancer [Sanger Institute] "From our research, it now looks like some of these tandem duplications are not just unimportant passenger mutations, but actually create new driver mutations for cancer.”
TCGA study identifies genomic features of cervical cancer [NCI] “The identification of HPV-negative endometrial-like tumors confirms that not all cervical cancers are related to HPV infection and that a small percentage of cervical tumors may be due to strictly genetic or other factors.”
	2.11 Etiologie - Alimentation
Warning over 'burnt toast chemical' acrylamide’s cancer risk [NHS Choices] So should I be worried? Well, the occasional slice of burnt toast isn’t going to kill you and the link between acrylamide and cancer in humans is unproven.
It’s too soon to say browned toast and crispy roast potatoes cause cancer [Cancer Research UK] Some have suggested exposure to acrylamide in food raises the risk of womb cancer, but the evidence is weak and inconsistent, so we can’t be sure if this link is real. On top of this, acrylamide doesn’t seem to cause higher rates of cancer in food industry workers, who are exposed to twice as much acrylamide as people might be at home.
What is the real cancer risk from eating roast potatoes or toast? [The Guardian] The Food Standards Agency has warned that overcooked starchy foods can contain acrylamide, a chemical liked to cancer. But should you be worried?
	3.1 Tabac
Shifts Seen in Tobacco Product Types Purchased in US [NCI] “This report highlights the importance of continuing to monitor and reduce all forms of smoked and smokeless tobacco use in the U.S.,” said the study’s first author Teresa Wang, Ph.D.
	3.1.1 Tabac - e-cigs
E-Cigarettes may lure teens who otherwise might not smoke [Reuters] “In each case, the empirical results went against the confounding hypothesis, so we can be confident that the effect of e-cigarettes for contributing to uptake of smoking is a real effect and is not just due to a group of high-risk persons.”
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Genetic Testing Offers New Hope for Children with Brain Cancer [MIT Technology Review] More than half of pediatric cancer patients have genetic faults that could affect their diagnosis or be targeted by drugs.
	5. Traitements
Study unveils new way to starve tumors to death [WUSTL] Blocking cancer cells’ metabolism may make treatments more effective, less toxic.
Penn Researchers Help Unravel Mysteries of Pancreatic Cancer’s Resistance to Standard Therapies [Penn Medicine] Blocking inflammation after radiation therapy led to improved survival in mouse model.
New insights into why breast cancer drugs fail for some women [NHS Choices] One of the researchers, Dr Luca Magnani, commented: "In many cases when an aromatase inhibitor stops working in a patient, doctors will try another type of aromatase inhibitor. However, our research suggests that if the patient's cancer has started to make their own aromatase, this second drug would be useless. This is why we need a test to identify these patients."
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Study establishes new standard of care for pancreatic cancer patients [Cancer Research UK] The results, which were first presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June 2016 but have now been peer-reviewed, show that this treatment plan is predicted to double the number of patients who survive their disease for at least five years.
Trial finds combination of pancreatic cancer drugs extends survival [The Guardian] The clinical trial found that 29% of patients given a combination of two chemotherapy drugs lived for at least five years compared with 16% who received the one chemotherapy drug that is still the NHS’s standard treatment.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Autoimmunity and cancer: Flip sides of the same coin? [Stanford Medicine] This is the first time that a deficiency of an immune checkpoint has been implicated in a human autoimmune disease. But it might not be the last.
Opdivo Making Strides in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma [OBR Blog] The data that are unfolding continue to support a potential future scenario in which Opdivo emerges triumphant as a new leader in HCC management, potentially unseating Nexavar in the front-line and bringing a more effective and tolerable treatment to a very ill patient population greatly in need of some hope.
How Cancers Lose Something to Gain Immunotherapy Resistance [Cancer Research Catalyst] “Discarding mutations is a new mechanism, as far as we understand, in the world of resistance to cancer therapy. It came as a surprise.”
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
Armed with $16M, Cue Biopharma Aims for Selective Immunotherapy [Xconomy] Cue’s pipeline includes two pre-clinical candidates: CUE-101 is being developed for cervical, head and neck, and anal cancers; CUE-102 is a potential treatment for melanoma, synovial sarcoma, prostate, and head and neck cancers.
An upstart immunotherapy biotech emerges from stealth mode with big love for Kendall Square [EndPoints] To put it another way, Passeri tells me, it’s like doing what you want to do with a CAR-T, but through a molecule rather than an ex vivo engineering process. This is second-gen immunotherapeutic work, ideal for checkpoint collaborations, and the CEO expects to have the lead candidate for HPV selected soon, with plans to go into the clinic in H1 2018.
Novartis chases rivals with next wave of cancer immunotherapy [Reuters] The Swiss drugmaker said it was rapidly progressing 18 checkpoint and other novel targets and expected to be running 20 exploratory studies in immuno-oncology by early 2017.
	5.2 Pharma
Drug industry unveils massive new campaign to counter criticism [STAT] The campaign, branded “GoBoldly,” sounds like a more aggressive version of the industry’s previous image-making campaign, “From Hopes to Cures.”
Facing a deepening political crisis, PhRMA launches a major counterattack against its legion of critics [EndPoints] Just months after raising dues to generate an extra $100 million for its war chest, PhRMA is reportedly spending tens of millions of dollars on a new campaign aimed to win hearts and minds in the growing battle over drug prices.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
I Do Hate To Tell You This, But. . . [In the Pipeline] So, to sum up, most investigational drugs don’t work. “Freeing up” the system in order to give them to more people will merely allow more people (and more insurance companies) to pay for drug candidates that don’t do anything, or actually make people worse.
EMA Reflects on its First Decade of Conditional Marketing Authorizations [RAPS] Of the 30 products granted conditional marketing authorization so far, 11 have gone on to receive standard authorization, EMA said in touting the program's success.
Conditional marketing authorisations give patients access to important new medicines earlier [EMA] EMA publishes report with data collected between 2006 and June 2016.
Keep Politics Out Of Science, Says Departing FDA Chief [Forbes] “The most recent empirical data that we have at the FDA is that approximately 92% of drugs that go into human testing don’t make it to market because they have unacceptable toxicity, they actually don’t work for the intended purpose, or they can’t be manufactured at scale safely,” Califf says.
Benefit-Risk Assessments at the US Food and Drug Administration [JAMA] FDA has articulated 2 thoughtful, comprehensive benefit-risk frameworks. These frameworks—one for medical devices required to have premarket approval and one for human drugs and biologics—provide structured decision-support tools for benefit-risk assessments.
	6.1 Observation
JAMA Study Reinforces that Cancer Prevention and Treatment Must Be Tailored by Region [ASCO] The study’s accompanying editorial highlights several regional programs underway to meet this need and there are big data efforts, such as ASCO’s CancerLinQ®, that can help locate disparities in care on more rapid basis. However, this study’s findings emphasize that work must be done.
Study Corrects Cancer Data and Finds Cervical Cancer Rates, Disparities Higher than Thought [ACS] Common reasons for the disparities include things like overcrowding and overtaxed doctors and clinics in socioeconomically deprived communities.
The risk of death from cancer may depend on where you live [Reuters] Cancer fatalities now account for about 192 deaths for every 100,000 people in the U.S., down from 240 per 100,000 at the start of the study period. But in some parts of the country where poverty, obesity and smoking are more common, rates of death from cancer are going up.
	6.10 Politiques
We must urgently clarify data-sharing rules [Nature] Another important consideration is that the EU is planning to spend €6.7 billion (US$7.2 billion) on a European Open Science Cloud initiative, which means that data sharing has to work across borders. If it does not, the cloud will be very cloudy indeed.
	6.11 Patients
High Anxiety Among Partners Of Young Breast Cancer Survivors, Study Finds [Forbes] The researchers asked patients’ partners about what Borstelmann referred to as “maladaptive coping” behaviors. Those would include withdrawing emotionally (from the relationship), drinking more, blaming others for problems and behaving in an aggressive manner.
	6.5 Médecines alternatives
Tackling cancer treatment myths, from clean eating to cannabis [The Guardian] At the end of the day, these myths centre on the idea that there is a simple cause or cure for cancer. The reality is that cancer is complex illness, and simple narratives should be treated with scepticism.
	6.6 Publications
Journal retracts paper due to image mismatch; one co-author alleges fraud [Retraction Watch] The second to last author — Carlo Croce, chair of the department of cancer biology and genetics at The Ohio State University — told us he believes there’s more to the retraction than what the notice says.
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
Digital Science Announces New Dimensions Module for Researchers, Providing Powerful Insights into the Global Funding Landscape [UberResearch] Dimensions is already being used by university administrators and research offices across the globe to inform research development decisions. This new version of the platform, available via site license access, enables researchers themselves to understand new trends as they emerge and to see the research activity in their field unfold in real-time.