Onco Actu du 12 mai 2017

	1. Biologie
Snapshots of Life: Biological Bubble Machine [NIH Director's Blog] Until recently, most efforts to exploit vesicles for therapeutic uses have employed synthetic versions of a different type of vesicle, called an exosome. But Stachowiak and others have realized that PMVs come with certain built-in advantages. A major one is that a patient’s own cells could in theory serve as the production facility.
	3.1 Tabac
Cutting smoking rates could save the NHS £67 million a year [Cancer Research UK] Researchers at the UK Health Forum, commissioned by Cancer Research UK, examined the health and economic impact of the UK becoming ‘tobacco-free’ - where less than five per cent of the population smoke.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Human Longevity, Inc. Launches Pilot Program, Health Nucleus X [Human Longevity] HNX focuses on core testing areas of whole genome sequencing and advanced whole body, 3T, non-contrast MRI and takes about three hours. The pilot is being offered in the Health Nucleus facility in La Jolla, California from May 1 through June 30, 2017 for an introductory price of $7,500.
	4.1 Dép., diag. & prono. - Prostate
Cleveland Clinic-led Study Finds That New Blood Test is More Accurate in Predicting Overall Risk of Prostate Cancer than Standard Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) [Cleveland Clinic] IsoPSA assay can help in determining the need for prostate biopsy for patients.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Guardant Health Raises $350 Million In Race To Create Cancer Blood Tests [Forbes] Using the Guardant test on a million patients would by itself would be a dramatic accomplishment. Since it launched its product, called a “liquid biopsy”, in 2014, Guardant’s tests have been given to 40,000 people. But the goal isn’t just to increase use, but to collect data.
	4.5 Dép., diag. & prono. - Colorectal
NHS patients waiting months for vital bowel cancer tests, figures show [The Guardian] People suspected of having bowel cancer are facing waits of three months for tests when they should have them within a maximum of six weeks, the latest NHS waiting time figures show.
	5. Traitements
Human Antibody Discovery: Of Mice And Phage [Life Sci VC] Instead of worrying about “can I make a potent antibody”, the focus for most researchers has shifted to “will a potent antibody deliver value to patients”. This latter question is where most antibodies, if they fail, come a part in the clinic these days: disease biology is hard to fully appreciate until you do the clinical work.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Molecular imaging reveals mechanism for resistance to immune checkpoint blockade [Mass General Hospital] Macrophages that rapidly remove drugs from T cells may be new treatment target.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
Imfinzi significantly reduces the risk of disease worsening or death in the Phase III PACIFIC trial for Stage III unresectable lung cancer [AstraZeneca] Imfinzi is the first immuno-oncology medicine to show superior PFS in this setting.
Key AstraZeneca drug shown to reduce risk of death from lung cancer [Reuters] The trial results are a boost for a product the company hopes will become a blockbuster drug with sales in the billions of dollars. Astra said it was in active discussion with the authorities over its plans for regulatory submission.
	5.12.6 Immunothérapies - AMM
Merck Immunotherapy Drug Notches Another FDA Win in Lung Cancer [Xconomy] In a research note, Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat wrote that the FDA approval expands the market opportunity for Merck. But that market won’t open up right away. Depending on the age of the patient, some physicians may approach combination therapy differently, Raffat wrote.
Merck Can't Say How Good its Good News Is [Bloomberg] Merck is now firmly leading the lung-cancer market, and arguably the IO market in general. But it knows how quickly fortunes can change. Bristol-Myers was seen as leading the pack comfortably until Opdivo failed an aggressive trial in newly diagnosed lung-cancer patients, where Keytruda is succeeding.
FDA Approves Combining Merck’s Keytruda With Chemotherapy in Lung Cancer Patients [Wall Street Journal] Immunotherapy drug, introduced in 2014, can be used for certain lung cancer patients regardless of PD-L1 levels.
Has Merck Lucked Into A $10 Billion Drug? [Forbes] In 2018, sales of Keytruda could approach $6 billion, analysts predict.
	5.2 Pharma
Array BioPharma Announces Positive Top-Line Results from Part 2 of the Phase 3 COLUMBUS Study of Binimetinib and Encorafenib for BRAF-Mutant Melanoma [Array] Median PFS for patients on combination of binimetinib (45mg) plus encorafenib (300mg) was 12.9 months versus 9.2 months for patients on encorafenib (300mg).
Array shares surge as second chapter of its PhIII cancer combo story ends on an upbeat note [EndPoints] Array Bio­pharma stock got a bounce out of the up­beat as­sess­ment of the sec­ond part of its Phase III study of binime­tinib com­bined with en­co­rafenib, demon­strat­ing their abil­ity to sig­nif­i­cantly im­prove pro­gres­sion free sur­vival rates for pa­tients with BRAF-mu­tant ad­vanced melanoma.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
WHO wants transparency, market revamp for fairer drug pricing [Reuters] WHO assistant director-general Marie-Paule Kieny said there was agreement that industry needed reasonable returns on research and development, but governments should play a stronger role in setting prices and directing the drug research agenda.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Changes in NIH Grant Policy? [In the Pipeline] The NIH is completely within its rights (and in fact, its responsibilities) to keep an eye on how its grants are evaluated and awarded. But this proposal seems arbitrary and disingenuous, a good shot at getting the worst of both worlds.
	6.10 Politiques
China cracks down on fake data in drug trials [Nature] Researchers and manufacturers face possible jail time — or execution — for fraudulent submissions to nation's drug agency.
	6.4 Médico-éco
Breast cancer treatment costs higher for younger women [Reuters] "Some of the difference in costs may be due to younger women being diagnosed at a higher stage of disease."
	6.6 Publications
Paper by Harvard cancer biologist flagged over “credible concerns” [Retraction Watch] In the past few years, last author Sam W. Lee lost a Molecular Cell paper in 2013 due to figure duplication and a Journal of Biological Chemistry paper in 2015, citing “manipulated” data in a figure.
“Dramatic impact:” Authors misread breast cancer treatment database, retract paper [Retraction Watch] After the paper was published, the NCDB pointed out to Chu that a key data point had not been reliably or consistently collected during the timeframe relevant to the study. The database’s user’s manual says essentially the same thing; Chu said he and his authors read it, but misunderstood it.
	6.7.1 Bioinformatique
Using AI to Detect Cancer, Not Just Cats [Wired] Just as a neural network can identify a cat in a snapshot of your living room, it can identify tiny aneurysms in eye scans or pinpoint nodules in CT scans of the lungs. Basically, after analyzing thousands of images that contain such nodules, it can learn to identify them on its own.
	6.8 Communication
Why we should all be wary when PR machines promote phase 2 studies [healthNewsReview] Even though the results are often reversed by larger trials, phase 2 trial results are frequently promoted to journalists by PR and marketing departments. So too are phase 1 trials, which are even more preliminary and basically incapable of showing any efficacy whatsoever.