Onco Actu du 26 janvier 2017

	2. Etiologie
U.S. chemical industry body calls for reform of WHO cancer agency [Reuters] The American Chemistry Council industry body called on Wednesday for World Health Organization's cancer agency to reform, accusing it of "dubious and misleading" work in classifying potential carcinogens.
	3.1 Tabac
Personalised invite can encourage more people to quit smoking through Stop Smoking Services [Cancer Research UK] The study compared 2 groups: 1 received an invitation to attend a no-commitment introductory session that included personalised information about health risk; the other received a standard advert for their local service.
	4.13 Dép., diag. & prono. - Peau
Computer identifies skin cancer as well as dermatologists, Stanford researchers report [Stanford Medicine] The interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, dermatologists, pathologists and a microbiologist started with a deep learning algorithm developed by Google, which was already trained to classify 1.28 million images into 1,000 categories — such as differentiating pictures of cats from dogs. The Stanford researchers adapted this algorithm to differentiate between images of malignant versus benign skin lesions.
AI system as good as experts at recognising skin cancers, say researchers [The Guardian] The US-based researchers say the new system, which is based on image recognition, could be developed for smartphones, increasing access to screening and providing a low-cost way to check whether skin lesions are cause for concern.
	4.7 Dép., diag. & prono. - Col de l'utérus
Genetic analysis of cervical cancers hints at targets for treatments [Cancer Research UK] Based on their genetic analysis the team found changes to specific genes which have already been targeted by drugs developed for other cancers. This suggests those drugs might also have potential as treatments for cervical cancer.
	5. Traitements
Enabling Precision Medicine: The Role of Genetics in Clinical Drug Development – A Workshop [National Academies] March 8, 2017 - This one-day public workshop will examine and discuss successes, challenges, and best practices for effectively utilizing genetic information in the design and implementation of clinical trials to support the development of precision medicines, including exploring the potential advantages and disadvantages of such trials across a variety of disease areas.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
New drug treatment for pancreatic cancer 'extends survival' [NHS Choices] This study shows that a combination of two chemotherapy drugs may help people live longer than taking one drug alone after surgery. But this doesn't mean everyone taking those drugs will survive at least five years, despite the media headlines. The researchers estimate 28.8%, or just over a quarter, of people who have surgery and take these two drugs will survive for at least five years.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Investigators detail some of the hopes – and fears – behind Cellectis’ off-the-shelf CAR-T [EndPoints] This new report does provide more insights into the therapy, underscoring Cellectis’ rationale that the lead CAR-Ts now in late-stage development – which extract T cells from patients, engineer them and then infuse them back into patients – leave a lot to be desired.
Gene-edited cells keep cancer babies well more than one year on [Reuters] But while other drugmakers such as Novartis, Juno and Kite have treatments that use modified T-cells extracted from individual patients, UCART19 is derived from healthy donors and aims to be a universal therapy.
Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish [MIT Technology Review] “The patient could be treated immediately, as opposed to taking cells from a patient and manufacturing them,” says Julianne Smith, vice president of CAR-T development for Cellectis, which specializes in supplying universal cells.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
Novartis lays out catch-up plan in immuno-oncology fueled by new-gen treatments [FierceBiotech] Novartis only really got going in immuno-oncology at the start of 2015 when it set up a dedicated research team led by cancer vaccine pioneer Glenn Dranoff. Right now, Novartis is sitting on around 18 immuno-oncology compounds in its pipeline.
	5.2 Pharma
Fighting a generic onslaught, Novartis adds CAR-T to its growing list of late-stage blockbusters [EndPoints] Novartis has, for the first time, included CTL019 on its pipeline of possible blockbusters, underscoring its confidence in the product’s commercial potential.
Eisai plots new drug applications in US, Europe and China after Lenvima scores in head-to-head liver cancer study [EndPoints] Last summer Eisai partnered with Novartis’ powerhouse marketing team in the US, looking to co-promote this drug, which is already approved for kidney cancer in combination with Afinitor. Its ongoing development plan includes studies for biliary tract cancer and in combination with pembrolizumab for various types of cancer.
	5.2.2 Pharma - Fusions & Acquisitions
Johnson & Johnson to Acquire Actelion for $30 Billion With Spin-Out of New R&D Company [Johnson & Johson] Actelion R&D Unit to Spin Out into Standalone Company Based and Listed in Switzerland.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
U.K. hatches plan to attract R&D investment, as EMA exit likely [FierceBiotech] Some U.K. politicians still hope to keep EMA and the 900 people it employs in London once Brexit is complete, but Hunt has a different, arguably more realistic, stance. “The EMA is an EU institution. I think it's likely EU countries will want to move its headquarters outside the UK,” he said.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
New research to act as catalyst to help GPs diagnose cancer [Cancer Research UK] The CanTest project will aim to improve and develop new ways of diagnosing cancer in GP surgeries. It will assess the accuracy, cost effectiveness and suitability of a range of diagnostic methods and tools for both patients and GPs as a way to lower diagnostic waiting times and reduce the burden of referrals.
	6.1 Observation
Anxious and depressed people far more likely to die from cancer, study shows [The Telegraph] Researchers at University College London and the University of Edinburgh reviewed the findings of 16 studies involving 163,000 people to establish how feeling worried and withdrawn impacts survival.
Nearly half of breast cancer patients have severe treatment side effects [Reuters] For the study, researchers surveyed 1,945 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer about the severity of seven treatment side effects: nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, pain, arm swelling, shortness of breath and breast skin irritation.
	6.10 Politiques
Cancer, hepatitis treatments set for boost as China overhauls drugs list [Reuters] Industry insiders and analysts said oncology drugs were also likely to be added to national and regional lists. Poor access to targeted cancer drugs is a hot-button issue in China, where patients often take on crippling debts or turn to grey markets to get treatment.
	6.11 Patients
Every doctor has one death they remember. For me, it was you [The Guardian] You had cancer and only hours to live; your husband’s last wish was for your parents to see you one last time.
	6.6 Publications
Dangerous chemo mistake retracted by journal after two years [Retraction Watch] Specifically, the paper suggested that a chemotherapy drug be injected intrathecally — i.e., in the spine. But according to the retraction notice, the medical literature has unequivocally shown that that form of treatment is “uniformly fatal.”