Onco Actu du 9 mai 2017

	2. Etiologie
Citizen science often overstates ‘cancer clusters’ like the one linked to artificial turf [STAT] Citizen science tends to be the product of the instinctive way we perceive the world in our fundamental and constant drive to avoid danger. It’s a hint, a clue, and often an important first step, but it is not the answer.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
Greater total pollution exposure tied to higher cancer risk [Reuters] To assess the connection between environmental quality and cancer risk, the researchers examined county-by-county data on exposure to different pollutants from 2000 to 2005 and on new cancer diagnoses from 2006 to 2010.
	3. Prévention
Personal Health: How to Lower Breast Cancer Risk [NY Times] One of the most important actions is an inaction: not smoking.
	3.1.1 Tabac - e-cigs
The shadow of Big Tobacco looms over e-cigarettes and harm reduction [STAT] In either case, e-cigarettes don’t just represent a promising means to help people stop smoking, but also a way to market the recreational use of nicotine. That means an industry in the business of addiction will profit from tobacco harm reduction.
More than half of British vapers have now given up smoking tobacco [Cancer Research UK] Professor Ann McNeill, from King’s College London, said finding that the majority of e-cigarette users are now ex-smokers was “encouraging news”. But the figures show many still ‘dual-use’ tobacco cigarettes alongside e-cigarettes.
E-cigarette companies fined over false claims about toxic chemicals [The Guardian] Australia’s competition regulator has become the first in the world to successfully take legal action against e-cigarette companies for making false and misleading claims about the carcinogens in their products.
Majority of vapers have quit tobacco – survey [The Guardian] More than half of the estimated 2.9 million people in the UK who use e-cigarettes have given up smoking tobacco, a survey suggests. But many people overestimate the relative health risks of vaping, which may have contributed to a slowdown in the numbers turning to e-cigarettes.
	3.5 Prévention - UV
Sun Awareness Week: 10 new sun safety myths debunked [Cancer Research UK] By dodging these myths, we can all do our best to protect ourselves when the sun is strong.
	3.8 Prévention - Alimentation
14: The Unmentioned Number in the Prostate Cancer/Coffee Story [ACS] What if I told you it was based on just over a dozen cancer cases. You read that right. All those headlines leaping out at you, based on 14 prostate cancers among heavy coffee drinkers.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Study finds low rate of cancer screening among transplant patients [ecancernews] People who have received organ transplants are at higher risk of developing and dying of cancer than the general population. Yet their rates of cancer screening do not meet existing guidelines, a new study has found.
	4.10 Dép., diag. & prono. - Poumon
Million-Dollar Prize Hints at How Machine Learning May Someday Spot Cancer [MIT Technology Review] The challenge offered $1 million in prizes for the algorithms that most accurately identified signs of lung cancer in low-dose computed tomography images.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Roche launches AVENIO ctDNA Analysis Kits for Oncology Research [Roche] With three different kits available, researchers can profile the genomic complexities of different cancer stages and tumor types, obtaining results in five days.
Blood test may lead to targeted therapy for prostate cancer [NHS Choices] This research shows that, among a group of 265 men, those with multiple copies of the androgen receptor gene did worse after treatment than those without. That doesn't prove that selecting patients for treatment based on AR gene status will improve outcomes.
	5. Traitements
Study suggests a role for radiotherapy for extending the lives of pancreatic cancer patients [ESTRO] The study retrospectively analysed 514 patients from Europe and the US who were diagnosed when their tumours had not spread and could be removed by surgery.
Taking a potential new breast cancer treatment from the lab to the clinic [Cancer Research UK] Their idea was to try the combination of oestrogen-blocking drug and progesterone as the first therapy women receive. And setting up the trial was surprisingly simple.
Head and Neck Cancer Recurrence Following Radiation Associated With High Tumor PD-L1 Expression [AACR] Because there are multiple immunotherapeutics that target the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, our data suggest that combining radiation and a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor could improve outcomes for these patients.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
ASCO and NCI Collaboration Finds Widespread Benefits of Centralizing Coverage Analyses for Multi-Site Clinical Trials [ASCO] “Establishing a centralized system that provides coverage analysis to research sites participating in a multi-site cancer clinical trial before trial launch would reduce system-wide redundancies and costs, as well as time and resource burdens on sites.”
	5.12.1 Immunothérapies - partenariats
Regeneron pens Inovio I-O combo cocktail pact for aggressive brain tumors [FierceBiotech] The study will combine Regeneron’s PD-1 inhibitor REGN2810 (which is also being studied in other cancers with long-term partner Sanofi) and Inovio's T-cell activator INO-5401 as well as its immune activator INO-9012 in brain cancer.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Investors spooked by Kite CAR-T death, but biotech remains confident [FierceBiotech] The trial was in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and the death was generally unexpected—Kite has thus far not shown any deaths from this cause, although it was responsible for five deaths in trials for its rival Juno Therapeutics last year.
Kite CAR-T Death: An Unwelcome Mystery as FDA Mulls Approval [Xconomy] In a lengthy interview in January, Kite Pharma CEO Arie Belldegrun was adamant that his company’s experimental cell therapy was different from one competitor, Juno Therapeutics, because unlike with Juno, no Kite patient had died from cerebral edema, or massive swelling in the brain. Belldegrun can no longer make that claim.
Kite’s Latest News [In the Pipeline] As it stands now, responses range from “This therapy will save your life when nothing else can” through “This therapy will slow down your cancer to an unpredictable degree” all the way to “This therapy will kill you, even faster than your cancer will”.
Nanoparticles Create Effective CAR T Cells in Living Mice [NCI] The real novelty is you don’t have to make CAR T cells outside of the patient; you can deliver these nanoparticles directly to the patient.”
Kite Pharma Discloses CAR-T Patient Death, Rattling Investors [The Street] Kite shares are down 11% to $73.10 in Monday trading. Until Monday's disclosure, Kite's KTE-C19 development program had not recorded a death due to cerebral edema.
One of Kite Pharma’s CAR-T patients died from cerebral edema, triggering a safety alarm [EndPoints] Kite Pharma revealed today that one of the patients in their late-stage program for the CAR-T drug KTE-C19 died from cerebral edema, the same brain swelling condition that went on to scuttle Juno Therapeutics’ lead drug.
	5.12.6 Immunothérapies - AMM
European Commission Approves KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma Who Failed Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and Brentuximab Vedotin (BV), or Who are Transplant-Ineligible and Have Failed BV [Merck] First Approval for KEYTRUDA in a Hematologic Malignancy in the EU.
	5.2 Pharma
OncoMed racks up three straight clinical disasters as lead drug implodes [EndPoints] Following up recent back-to-back clinical failures, the biotech says that its lead drug — demcizumab, partnered with Celgene — just failed a Phase II study for non-small cell lung cancer.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
Seattle Genetics Terminates License Agreement with Immunomedics for Sacituzumab Govitecan (IMMU-132) [Seattle Genetics] "Due to significant delays and lack of progress towards closing the deal, we are turning our full attention and resources to our promising pipeline and the substantial opportunities in front of us, including the upcoming topline data readout from the ADCETRIS ECHELON-1 trial and ongoing or planned pivotal trials of vadastuximab talirine (SGN-CD33A) and enfortumab vedotin (ASG-22ME).”
Seattle kills off $2B Immunomedics deal as biotech’s CEO and founder axed [FierceBiotech] The acrimonious battle centers on IMMU-132, a.k.a. sacituzumab govitecan, with venBio pushing to keep the drug in-house and calling the Seattle Genetics agreement “a rushed deal that does not deliver fair value to shareholders.”
Seattle Genetics throws in the towel on $2B Immunomedics deal, CEO and CSO axed in settlement [EndPoints] A few months ago the two companies tied up in a deal that gave Seattle Genetics global rights to Immunomedics’ IMMU-132, putting them in charge of a late-stage study of the drug for metastatic triple negative breast cancer while looking for an accelerated approval.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Involving patients in discussions on benefits and risks of medicines [EMA] EMA publishes report on CHMP pilot project.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
FDA OKs Medrobotics’ robotic system for colorectal surgery [FierceBiotech] The clearance follows a CE mark for the same indication and a previous FDA nod for transoral procedures.
	6.1 Observation
Type of prostate cancer surgery tied to later quality of life [Reuters] For the new study, the researchers analyzed surveys completed by 5,727 men in the Kaiser Permanente health system who were diagnosed with prostate cancer from March 2011 to January 2014. The men averaged 64 years old.
	6.10 Politiques
Scientists relieved by Emmanuel Macron’s French election victory [Nature] France's next president has vowed to ring-fence research budgets and boost innovation.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
Life Science Leaders Meet at White House [The Scientist] “We spoke to the importance of maintaining the United States’ investment in biomedical research, and of retaining our global leadership in the field to keep jobs and expertise in the U.S.,” Marc Tessier-Levigne, Stanford’s president, said in a statement sent to The Scientist.
	6.6 Publications
Introducing the Doing the Right Thing award, honoring those who clean up the scientific literature [STAT] The 77-year-old American Diabetes Association (ADA) and its flagship journal, Diabetes, have been champions of decisive action when it comes to policing their literature.
	6.8 Communication
“Less is more” theme from breast cancer conference attracts little mainstream news coverage [HealthNewsReview] This is what intrigues me most about the lack of mainstream media coverage at the conference: is a cautious and tempered approach to breast cancer treatment not sexy to the media?
	6.9 Controverses
French plan to create €5-billion science ‘super-campus’ in disarray [Nature] CentraleSupélec, a grande école and the larger of the two engineering schools in the group of seven, rejected the proposal shortly before the meeting — largely because it does not want to lose autonomy.