Onco Actu du 6 février 2017

	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
Immune system genes linked to most common type of leukaemia [The Institute of Cancer Research] Scientists have linked the risk of developing chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) to the inheritance of nine regions of DNA, five of which help white blood cells fight disease.
	3.1 Tabac
'Extinction therapy' could help smokers kick habit, study suggests [The Guardian] Technique aims to help smokers ‘unlearn’ associations that drive addiction by exposing them to triggers, such as footage of people smoking.
	3.1.1 Tabac - e-cigs
Japan Tobacco bets on e-cigarette's growth prospect, boosts annual dividend [Reuters] Battery-operated Ploom Tech is a device that uses vapor from heated liquid to deliver to the user the taste of tobacco leaves held in a disposable capsule. Japan Tobacco test launched the product early last year in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, following which it ran into supply constraints.
	5. Traitements
How dogs are helping advance cancer treatment in humans [STAT] This genetic diversity and sharing of similar DNA, physiology, microscopic structure and molecular features between dogs and humans has presented cancer researchers with a key opportunity. Dogs not only develop similar types of cancers as humans, but their cancer responds to treatments in similar ways.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Hormone drug and radiotherapy ‘could extend lives’ of prostate cancer patients after surgery [Cancer Research UK] Professor Nick James, a Cancer Research UK-funded expert in prostate cancer at the University of Birmingham, said the results could be “practice-changing”.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
AZ chief: Durvalumab's ready for a 'marketing battle' against I-O heavyweights Opdivo, Keytruda [FiercePharma] “The physicians who treat bladder cancer are more or less the same as those who treat lung cancer. So from a sales force effectiveness viewpoint, there's a very strong synergy,” he said.
BMS, Innate checkpoint inhibitor flunks AML phase 2 [FierceBiotech] “Although we knew that this setting was challenging, we are disappointed by the results of the EffiKIR study and will investigate further to better understand the data in its entirety,” Innate Chief Medical Officer Pierre Dodion said in a statement.
FDA Accepts Two sBLAs for Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for Locally Advanced or Metastatic Urothelial Cancer in Cisplatin-Ineligible First-Line and Second-Line Post-Platinum Failure Treatment Settings [Merck] KEYTRUDA Also Receives Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Second-Line Treatment Based on KEYNOTE-045, Which Includes Primary Endpoints of Overall Survival and Progression-Free Survival.
Bristol-Myers partner Innate concedes a PhII flop for I/O drug lirilumab in fighting AML [EndPoints] Carrying out plans to handle development through Phase II, Marseilles-based Innate execs said that lirilumab flunked a Phase II trial testing the drug as a single agent. There was no evidence that the drug was any better than placebo in spurring a leukemia-free outcome for patients in a maintenance setting.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
After promising Trump new US jobs, Eli Lilly sets out to chop 200 R&D staffers [EndPoints] The cuts were announced internally two days after Lilly CEO Dave Ricks assured President Trump that Lilly is in a hiring mode on the manufacturing front — a big issue for the new administration. “We’re hiring manufacturing jobs as I speak,” Ricks told Trump.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Trump and Congress may make it easier to get drugs approved — even if they don’t work [LA Times] The story of Tarceva shows the danger of approving experimental medicines before reliable scientific data show they are effective — which regulators are now doing more frequently.
Advanced therapy medicines: towards increased development and patient access [EMA] The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published today a set of ideas to better support development and expand patients’ access to high quality, safe and effective advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).
Donald Trump versus the FDA: Is the standard of evidence for drug approval actually too low rather than too high? [Science-Based Medicine] All of the candidates being considered by President Trump for FDA Commissioner believe that the FDA is too strict in its standards for approving new drugs. In a commentary in Nature last week, two bioethicists argued that, at least in terms of preclinical data, the standard of evidence is actually too low. Which is correct?
Trump’s F.D.A. Pick Could Undo Decades of Drug Safeguards [NY Times] “We’re not selling Coca-Cola and Pepsi, where patients can taste the Coca-Cola and decide if they like it,” said John M. Maraganore, the chief executive of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts biotech firm. “Our products are lifesaving medicines.”
What if the Free Market Decided Whether or Not Drugs Work? [MIT Technology Review] The idea is that the market itself will find ways to judge the best drugs, just as it rates restaurants, books, or software programs. It’s been a popular argument for years in some quarters, notably on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, but Forbes pointed out why the argument makes little sense.
	5.9 AACR
Research Teams Share Progress at Scientific Summit [Cancer Research Catalyst] For the first time ever, patient advocates presented during the Open Session. Two outstandingly articulate and passionate patient advocates captured the minds and hearts of the scientists, funders, and staff alike.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
How NHS and hospice teamwork can make end-of-life care as easy and painless as possible [The Telegraph] The success of Hospice at Home care has persuaded NHS England to fund the first stage of a new project by Hospice UK to evaluate yet more of the initiatives led by hospices. It will identify how hospice-led services can help to offer more choice to people over where they die.
To save lives, WHO wants global focus on catching cancer early [Reuters] The WHO acknowledged that the challenges were greater in poorer countries, where diagnostic services such as imaging, laboratory and pathology skills are rarer. The health agency urged such countries to prioritize "basic, high-impact and low-cost cancer diagnosis and treatment services".
	6.1 Observation
Women’s cancer rates rising faster than men’s [Cancer Research UK] Smoking and obesity are part of the reason for the faster rising rates for women as several of the obesity-related cancer types only affect women.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
Scientists urge boycott of U.S. meetings [Science] More than 5000 researchers from around the world have already pledged to boycott U.S. meetings, and signatures are being collected at a second website.
	6.12 Ethique
Thoughts on Corruption [In the Pipeline] I think that there are, broadly speaking, three levels of corruption, and that they can be ranked in order of severity and destructiveness to the social order.
	6.2 Implants mammaires
J&J breast implants "may have harmed thousands", claims fresh lawsuit [Pharmafile] Mentor Worldwide, a unit of US pharma firm Johnson & Johnson, has been accused of selling defective breast implants and is currently engaged in legal action over alleged health problems faced by a number of women.
	6.4 Médico-éco
Young cancer patients risk infertility, but often can’t afford freezing egg or sperm [STAT] There are a growing number of options to preserve fertility, but they can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are usually not covered by health plans.
Private cancer therapy 'crowdfunding rise' [BBC News] Data from JustGiving shows that 2,348 appeals were set up by cancer patients or their loved ones in 2016, a seven-fold rise on the number for 2015. Over £4.5m was raised by these appeals in 2016 compared with £530,000 in 2015.