Onco Actu du 27 mars 2017

	1. Biologie
Rethinking a Cancer Drug Target [The Scientist] The results of a CRISPR/Cas9 study suggest that MELK—a protein thought to play a critical role in cancer—is not in fact necessary for cancer cell survival.
	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
Reports that cancer is ‘mainly bad luck’ make a complicated story a bit too simple [Cancer Research UK] “They’ve taken an approach focused too heavily on mutations, and while mutations are very important for cancer, the disease can’t be boiled down solely to specific mutations.”
The ‘Bad Luck’ Cancer Analysis, Part II [ACS] The findings may lead to additional discussion of the role of ‘bad luck’ in cancer, but in fact the findings confirm something scientists have been talking about for a long time; that someone can do all the right things and still get cancer. This idea applies not only to people whose cancers are the result of replication error, but also to inherited genetic factors.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Software detects early-stage cancer DNA using epigenetic markers [FierceBiotech] Their technique uses computer software to analyze specific molecular patterns in cancer DNA that’s detected in blood. They developed a computer program that can not only detect tumor DNA, but also identify what type of cancer it is, according to a press release.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Every child with cancer to have tumour DNA sequenced to find best treatment [The Telegraph] Under the new plans children will find out the results of their DNA screening within two weeks of a biopsy being taken so that treatment can be adjusted.
	4.5 Dép., diag. & prono. - Colorectal
Reaching Beyond Delivery System Walls To Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening [Health Affairs Blog] Under the new screening program, patients may still elect to receive colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, but most choose the FIT.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
Breast Cancer Detection Using Ultrasound: Interview with Dr. Georgia Giakoumis Spear, NorthShore University Health System [medGadget] The scanner uses ultrasound to detect malignant tumors and is radiation-free. The system can reportedly improve breast cancer detection in women with dense breasts by up to 55%, compared with mammography alone.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
Ignyta agrees new terms with Lilly for troubled cancer alliance [FierceBiotech] Now, the two companies have agreed a way forward for the small-molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, which is being developed initially for a form of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma (BCC)—although it may be that Ignyta does not end up developing the drug itself.
	5.2.2 Pharma - Fusions & Acquisitions
That $95M Merck gamble to acquire cCAM? It didn’t pay off. [EndPoints] When Merck acquired cCAM Biotherapeutics in Israel in the summer of 2015, R&D chief Roger Perlmutter and his crew were intrigued by the potential of its lead drug, CM-24, in targeting the immune checkpoint protein CEACAM1.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
Bristol-Myers Squibb Receives Positive CHMP Opinion Recommending Opdivo (nivolumab) for the Treatment of Squamous Cell Cancer of the Head and Neck in Adults Progressing on or After Platinum-based Therapy [BMS] Positive opinion based on overall survival benefit demonstrated in the Phase 3 CheckMate -141 trial.
European Medicines Agency’s CHMP Recommends Approval of Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the Treatment of Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma [Merck] Recommendation Is for Adult Patients Who Have Failed Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and Brentuximab Vedotin (BV), or Who Are Transplant-Ineligible and Have Failed BV.
Meeting highlights from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) 20-23 March 2017 [EMA] The CHMP recommended granting a marketing authorisation under exceptional circumstances for Dinutuximab beta Apeiron (dinutuximab beta) for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma. This medicine has an orphan designation.
Chinese drug approval boosts AstraZeneca's lung cancer hopes [Reuters] China is potentially the biggest market for the drug because 30 to 40 percent of Asian patients with non-small cell lung cancer have epidermal growth factor receptor mutated tumors that are receptive to Tagrisso, a far higher rate than in the West.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
NICE asks BMS for more data before approving cancer drug [European Pharmaceutical Review] The independent appraisal committee recognised that nivolumab is an innovative and promising treatment, but concluded that the evidence presented was highly uncertain due to immature data and did not reflect how the drug would be used in UK clinical practice.
	6.1 Observation
Can the contraceptive pill protect women from cancer? [The Guardian] The pill protects women from endometrial cancer – cancer of the womb – ovarian and bowel cancer. That had been established. But this, the longest-ever study, says that protection lasts up to 35 years after women stop taking it, and that there are no other cancers connected to it in the long-term.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
New coalition formed to fight back against Trump’s desired NIH cuts [FierceBiotech] “This Coalition creates the framework for industry, researchers and patient groups to work collaboratively to protect biomedical research and innovation."
Drug Companies Are Buying Ads on Shows They Know Donald Trump Watches [Bloomberg] The ads make no mention of drug prices. Instead, they focus on how the industry is investing in research, featuring images of a baby, an elderly man about to undergo surgery, scientists looking into microscopes and a digitized cancer cell being destroyed “thanks to medicine that didn’t exist until now.”
	6.6 Publications
Researching the researchers: meet Stanford school's 'Cassandra' of fake news [Wired] John Ioannidis is worried about the rise of false data in science - so he studies the studies.
The Readability Of Scientific Texts Is Decreasing Over Time [bioRxiv] The understandability of written language can be estimated using readability formulae. Here, in a corpus consisting of 707 452 scientific abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 122 influential biomedical journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily decreasing.
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
A.I. versus M.D. [The New Yorker] What happens when diagnosis is automated? By Siddhartha Mukherjee.
	6.8 Communication
‘Not statistically significant but clinically meaningful’: A researcher calls ‘BS’ on cancer drug spin [HealthNewsReview] Despite that uncertainty, the Novartis promotional material treats this negative finding as evidence of benefit and hypes it as “clinically meaningful” to doctors visiting its website.