Onco Actu du 13 mars 2017

	2. Etiologie
Leukaemia began in bats 45 million years ago, study finds [The Telegraph] The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers conclusive evidence these viruses are between 20 and 45 million years old.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
It’s safe to return to Fukushima, study suggests [Science] The team also found that natural radioactive decay and weathering from rain deserve far more credit for reducing radiation levels than do expensive decontamination efforts, like topsoil removal.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
What can you learn from your own genome? Science writer Carl Zimmer found out [Stanford Medicine] “There’s a disconnect between the morning-in-the-forest kind of hoopla about what you can find about your genome and what [scientists] can actually deliver to people who are healthy,” Zimmer said. “It’s a fundamentally hard problem.”
House Republicans would let employers demand workers’ genetic test results [STAT] Giving employers such power is now prohibited by legislation including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a “workplace wellness” program.
	4.7 Dép., diag. & prono. - Col de l'utérus
Lesbians 'told they did not need cervical screening' [BBC News] Women who have sex with women are often wrongly told they do not need a cervical screening test, say LGBT groups. This results in half of all eligible lesbian and bisexual women never having had a smear test, they said.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
Mayo breast cancer study provides critical information on tumor sequencing and response to chemotherapy [Mayo Clinic] The goal was to determine whether tumor genomic alterations could differentiate patients with chemotherapy sensitive and chemotherapy resistant disease and to generate patient-derived xenografts (mouse avatars) to validate their findings.
	5. Traitements
Breakthrough discovery could lead to new targeted cancer treatment [Pharmafile] The research team discovered particular compounds that could target these molecules, one of which is called Targapremir-18a that is able to latch onto microRNA-18a, similar to a lock and key, and trigger prostate cancer death.
EMA reviewing cancer medicine docetaxel [EMA] A preliminary assessment by EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) indicates that the frequency of this side effect has not increased in the last two years. A thorough evaluation of available data is being carried out and final conclusions will be published once the review is completed.
The inconvenient path of precision medicine in drug development [Plenge Gen] I was struck by a consistent theme: most think that “precision medicine” will improve delivery of approved therapies or those that are currently being developed, whether or not the therapies were developed originally with precision medicine explicitly in mind.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Reviving tired T cells when immuno-oncology drugs fail [FierceBiotech] Checkpoint inhibitors like Merck’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) are designed to stimulate the immune system’s T cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. Problem is, they don’t work for many patients, and no one has been able to pinpoint exactly why that is. Now scientists at Emory say they’ve found a clue, in an immune protein called CD28.
	5.2 Pharma
Clovis Oncology Presents New Data from Phase 2 Studies of Rucaparib in Advanced Ovarian Cancer at 2017 SGO Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer [Clovis] New data from these presentations include analyses of patient subsets from the ARIEL2 trial, including an integrated summary of data in patients from ARIEL2 parts 1 and 2 with a germline or somatic BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA) mutation. ARIEL2 enrolled 493 patients with relapsed ovarian cancer to identify those patients most likely to respond to treatment with rucaparib.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
WARF, Cellectar Expand Licensing Agreement For Blood Cancer Drug [Xconomy] The agreement, between the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Madison, WI-based Cellectar, covers the use of the company’s leading drug candidate. The compound, known as CLR 131, has the potential to treat malignant tumors and certain forms of blood cancer, including multiple myeloma, Cellectar has said.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
Barclays loses patience with Gilead, tells it to change up its strategy [FierceBiotech] It doesn’t, however, believe a merger of equals wither another biopharma would be worth the hassle, and also warns off buying a big I-O player, as this “seems less value-add to us.”
Tocagen seeks $86M IPO to fund cancer gene therapy trial [FierceBiotech] Among the 24 patients who received the higher Toca 511 doses in a phase 1 and met the inclusion criteria for the phase 2/3, Toca saw three complete responses and two partial responses. At the time of the last data update, the responders were still alive 24 to 43 months after entering the study.
Tocagen shoots for $86 million IPO, spotlighting a high-risk shot at a quick OK for brain cancer therapy [EndPoints] Toca 511 uses a vector to deliver a gene therapy to cancer cells in the brain which converts Toca FC into the cancer agent 5-FU. When it kills cancer cells, they release antigens that then spark an immune response to help amp up the effect of the therapy, according to the company’s S-1.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Physician with drug-industry ties is Trump's rumoured FDA pick [Nature] Gottlieb, who serves on the board of several major pharmaceutical companies, is a vocal critic of the healthcare reforms instituted by former president Barack Obama. At times, he has also characterized the FDA as standing in the way of innovation, slowing patient access to new drugs and limiting physician autonomy.
Trump will nominate Scott Gottlieb to lead FDA [STAT] He is a cancer survivor, having been successfully treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Shelley Fuld Nasso, CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, said she believes this experience adds to his qualifications for the job.
Forbes Posts Show How Scott Gottlieb Might Run The FDA [Forbes] His writings here reveal the sharp mind of a man who doesn't believe the system is fundamentally broken, but who is distrustful of bureaucracy as a solution and attuned to the way that small policy changes can have outside effects.
F.D.A. Official Under Bush Is Trump’s Choice to Lead Agency [NY Times] The selection of Dr. Gottlieb, 44, who served as a top official at the agency during the administration of President George W. Bush, drew praise from industry executives, who had previously expressed concerns that another top contender, Jim O’Neill, held radical views that would have gutted standards for drug approval trials and testing.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
High U.S. drug prices cover pharma's global R&D—and a whole lot more, study finds [FiercePharma] Published in Health Affairs, the study found a 59% spread between the average prices for the world’s 20 top-selling meds in other developed countries and those in the U.S. In other words, a drug that costs $41 in other countries costs $100 in the U.S.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
British Science Week: 10 of the biggest changes in cancer research over the last 20 years [Cancer Research UK] We asked 10 of our experts across a range of areas to tell us how they think cancer research has changed over the last 20 years, and what might be on the horizon.
	6.1 Observation
News outlets sound alarm over ‘skyrocketing’ colon cancer in millennials. Is it a false alarm? [HealthNewsReview] “The point is that the numbers are small,” he says. “The NYT article quotes an expert as being concerned about a risk increase of 2 cases per one million people."
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
Joe Biden urges SXSW crowd to put innovation to work to cure cancer [STAT] As vice president, he said, he had “the entire United States Air Force available” to him, but did not have in his power the ability for his son’s doctors at different hospitals to share basic medical information.
Biden says would have liked to be the U.S. president who ended cancer [Reuters] "The only bipartisan thing left in America is the fight against cancer," he said.
	6.11 Patients
Positivity and Cancer: Be Yourself [Dana-Farber Cancer Institute] Buried within that fear was guilt that I wasn’t handling my diagnosis the “right” way. The pressure to be positive was overwhelming. It seemed as though I was expected to wrap myself in a pink ribbon and chant ‘The Fight Song’ on cue.
	6.5 Médecines alternatives
“Chemotherapy is for losers”: A tragic tale of cancer, naturopathic quackery, and murder [Science-Based Medicine] When a patient and family trust a naturopath rather than oncologists and oncologic surgeons, the result is often tragic. In this case, Fikreta Ibrisevic trusted naturopath Juan Sanchez Gonzalez instead of real doctors to treat her rhabdomyosarcoma in 2015. The results were as tragic as expected. What happened next was not expected and amplified the horror of the outcome, as in his grief over his wife’s death Ibrisevic’s husband Omer Ahmetovic went beyond suing for malpractice.