Onco Actu du 30 mars 2017

	1. Biologie
Cruel fusion: What a young man’s death means for childhood cancer [Nature] As in most cases of Ewing’s sarcoma, Max’s tumour cells contained two genes that had accidentally joined together into one. The fusion protein it produces, called EWS–FLI1, is a chimaera run amok, altering the expression of thousands of genes.
	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
The (bad) luck of the draw; more evidence [The Mermaid's Tale] The silly extremism to which the objectors to V-T would take us would be to say that, obviously, if we avoided any interaction whatsoever with our environment, we'd never get cancer. Of course, we'd all be so demented and immobilized with diverse organ-system failures that we wouldn't realize our good fortune in not getting cancer.
	3.3 Prévention - Vaccins
HPV Vaccine Could Protect More People With Fewer Doses, Doctors Insist [NPR] "This vaccine should have been introduced as a vaccine that will prevent cancer, not sexually transmitted infections," Meissner says.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Penn Studies Find Promise for Innovations in Liquid Biopsies [Penn Medicine] From using fluid in the lungs to better understand the potential of immunotherapy treatments in lung cancer, to tracking circulating tumor cells in prostate cancer, to conducting RNA sequencing of cancer cell clusters from the blood of pancreatic cancer patients, to finding new ways to biopsy tissue from patients who may have esophageal cancer, a series of studies from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrate the promise of new diagnostic methods.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
Detecting, diagnosing women’s cancers in new ways [WUSTL] Quing Zhu, professor of biomedical engineering with a secondary appointment as a professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, combines ultrasound with two additional optical imaging components — diffused near infrared light and photoacoustic waves — to give doctors a more accurate understanding of a patient’s tumor and how to best treat it.
What you need to know about new breast cancer screening technologies [The Globe and Mail] Consumers would be wise to question the motives of companies that want them to get screened more often, or use alternative methods, than what the current national screening guidelines recommend.
Zara founder to spend $344 million on breast cancer-screening for Spanish hospitals [Reuters] The foundation has already bought machines for screening and radio therapy treatment of breast cancer in hospitals in Galicia and Andalusia, and with this donation will extend the scheme to public hospitals throughout Spain.
	5. Traitements
Keyhole surgery a ‘better approach’ for women with early stage womb cancer [Cancer Research UK] Researchers from the University of Queensland found there was no difference in survival among women who received either a laparoscopic hysterectomy or an abdominal hysterectomy for stage one endometrial cancer.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Novartis gets a speedy review for its CAR-T pioneer as FDA lines up a marketing decision [EndPoints] Whoever gets onto the market first will have a big edge in setting the price for these first wave drugs.
Novartis says U.S. regulator grants speedy review of CAR-T cell therapy [Reuters] In a Phase II study, Novartis said 82 percent of patients infused with CAR-T cells achieved complete remission or complete remission with incomplete blood count recovery at three months after treatment.
Novartis Makes Plans For Its Cancer-Killing T Cells [Forbes] Nobody knows how much these products will costs, but they could be very expensive -- think $200,000 a year or more.
Novartis announces first CAR-T cell therapy BLA for pediatric and young adult patients with r/r B-cell ALL granted FDA Priority Review [Novartis] Novartis plans to submit an application for market authorization with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) later this year.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
Immunologic changes point to potential for clinical investigation of combination immunotherapy for deadly kidney cancer [MD Anderson] Nivolumab plus bevacizumab holds promise with 53 percent complete or partial response rate.
	5.2 Pharma
FDA Advisory Committee Unanimously Recommends Approval of Genentech’s Subcutaneous Rituximab for Certain Blood Cancers [Genentech] The FDA has set an action date of June 26 to make a final decision on approval.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
Blueprint files to raise $150M to fund cancer clinical trials [FierceBiotech] The kinase inhibitor specialist is looking to add to its already sizable cash reserves through a follow-on offering to equip itself to take its phase 1 candidates deeper into development.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
National agency pushback against EMA fast track continues [FierceBiotech] The German institute worries fast-track drug approvals based on limited clinical trial data or real-world evidence will become the norm—and that this will undermine attempts to gauge the true safety and efficacy of medicines.
FDA nomination in hand, Gottlieb prepares to disentangle himself from a long list of biopharma jobs and investments [EndPoints] Chances are that the Democrats will do what it can to paint these ties as an example of Gottlieb’s too cozy relationship with an industry he plans to regulate. But with the Republicans in charge of Congress and the White House, and biopharma offering solid support for the nomination, it’s unlikely he’ll be blocked.
F.D.A. Nominee Details Millions in Payments From Drug Firms [NY Times] Dr. Gottlieb is the acting chief executive of Cell Biotherapy, an early-stage cancer biotech firm that he helped found. He has served for years as a consultant to pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb and is paid by other companies for his expertise.
EU rapid drug approval plan worries some national agencies [Reuters] France is another country to voice scepticism about the EMA's new approach and some smaller countries have expressed misgivings privately. France's Haute Autorite de Sante, for example, says it has "mixed feelings" about expanding existing conditional marketing approval rules, according to Chantal Belorgey, its director in charge of medical assessment.
	6.1 Observation
Proportion of Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgery to Remove Unaffected Breast Varies Greatly by State [ACS] Nearly half of young women in five states with early-stage cancer in one breast undergo surgery for unaffected breast.
More Women With Breast Cancer Opt to Remove Healthy Breast [NY Times] One in three breast cancer patients under 45 removed the healthy breast along with the breast affected by cancer in 2012, a sharp increase from the one in 10 younger women with breast cancer who had double mastectomies eight years earlier, a new study reports.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
Tom Price defends proposed cuts at NIH, citing ‘indirect’ expenses [STAT] “I was struck by one thing at NIH,” Price said, “and that is that about 30 percent of the grant money that goes out is used for indirect expenses, which as you know means that that money goes for something other than the research that’s being done.”
Trump wants 2018 NIH cut to come from overhead payments [Science] University and research institutions, which negotiate their indirect cost recovery rates with the federal government, say the amount they receive doesn’t come close to covering the cost of the facilities needed to conduct federally funded research and the people needed to manage those grants.
	6.6 Publications
European Commission considering leap into open-access publishing [Science] The European Commission, which spends more than €10 billion annually on research, may follow two other big league funders, the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and set up a “publishing platform” for the scientists it funds, in an attempt to accelerate the transition to open-access publishing in Europe.
The Tincture of Time — Should Journals Return to Slower Publishing Practices? [Scholarly Kitchen] Journals don’t have to perform every publishing trick anymore. Maybe it’s time to return to doing what they do best — vetting information carefully, validating claims as best they can, and ensuring novelty, quality, relevance, and importance around what they choose to publish.