Onco Actu du 3 août 2017

	1. Biologie
Scientists deliver knock-out blow to multiple cancers [Cancer Research UK] Scientists found that targeting an enzyme known as NOX4 stops the action of a type of cell called cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs), reducing the size of tumours in mice by up to 50 per cent.
	2. Etiologie
Gum Disease Tied to Cancer Risk in Older Women [NY Times] The increased risk from periodontal disease was highest for esophageal and gallbladder cancers, with increased risk also for cancers of the breast and lung and for melanoma of the skin. But gum disease was not associated with cancers of the pancreas, liver or lower digestive tract.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
The ex-Googler who ran a company to detect cancer just stepped down as CEO [CNBC] Now that its funding is secure, Grail is planning a series of large-scale clinical studies to demonstrate that its technology, which uses deep sequencing of tumor DNA in the bloodstream, can diagnose cancer before it's too late to treat.
GRAIL Appoints Chairman Bill Rastetter to Chief Executive Officer [GRAIL] “GRAIL is on track to bring life-saving early cancer detection solutions for people around the world, and I look forward to continuing to support this amazing team. With this solid foundation in place, it’s an appropriate time to transition leadership to prepare for commercialization."
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
In-Depth Analysis of Metastatic Cancer Could Enable More Precise Treatments [HHMI] HHMI Investigator Arul Chinnaiyan is using comprehensive tumor sequencing to better capture the drivers of metastatic cancer and treat the disease more effectively.
Gene sequencing of solid tumors sheds light on cancer metastasis [FierceBiotech] "Tumors are evolving as part of metastasis and under therapy,” said Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, in the release. “We need to biopsy the metastatic tumors and then suggest therapies, rather than using archival tissue from the primary tumor."
	5. Traitements
Targeted radiotherapy limits side effects of breast cancer treatment [Cancer Research UK] Breast cancer patients who have radiotherapy targeted at the original tumour site experience fewer side effects five years after treatment than those who have whole breast radiotherapy, and their cancer is just as unlikely to return, according to trial results published* in The Lancet.
Breast cancer patients could be spared debilitating side effects with targeted treatment, five year study shows [The Telegraph] “The technique used here can be carried out on standard radiotherapy machines so we anticipate that these results will lead to further uptake of this treatment at centres across the country and worldwide.”
	5.2 Pharma
Following PhIII breakdown, AstraZeneca cruises toward an FDA decision for its BTK blockbuster hopeful acalabrutinib [EndPoint] Pascal Soriot’s big bet on leaping ahead on the checkpoint front with combos has run into a brick wall, for now, but the company retains blockbuster hopes that it can be turned around. Adding acalabrutinib and going after the Imbruvica (ibrutinib) franchise — the big cancer drug from J&J and AbbVie, would be a big help — and a welcome distraction.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
J&J, AbbVie's Imbruvica breaks out of blood-cancer corner with new graft-versus-host approval [FiercePharma] AbbVie may have shelled out a whole lot of money to gain access to Imbruvica, but the med keeps paying off.
U.S. FDA Approves IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib) as First and Only Approved Treatment for Adult Patients with Chronic Graft-Versus-Host-Disease (cGVHD) After Failure of One or More Lines of Systemic Therapy [Janssen] In the study population, the most common underlying malignancies leading to transplantation were acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Roche invited to submit a CDF proposal for urothelial cancer drug [NICE] Atezolizumab (marketed as Tecentriq) was assessed by NICE as a treatment for people who have advanced urothelial cancer. The NICE committee found stronger evidence is needed to show the drug is both clinically and cost effective.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Last Month in Oncology with Dr. Bishal Gyawali: July 2017 [ecancernews] How much more evidence do we need?
GRIPP2 reporting checklists: tools to improve reporting of patient and public involvement in research [BioMed Central] GRIPP2-LF and GRIPP2-SF represent the first international evidence based, consensus informed guidance for reporting patient and public involvement in research.
	6.11 Patients
Survivors of Breast Cancer Differ on Who Should Manage Follow-Up Care [NCI] Although most women in the study preferred that their primary care doctor deliver general preventive care and ongoing treatment for conditions other than cancer, a large minority wanted this type of care to come from their oncologist.
	6.6 Publications
0.05 or 0.005? P-value Wars Continue [Science-Based Medicine] The p-value is under fire yet again, but this time with some quick-and-dirty solutions (and some long-and-onerous ones too) to the problems created by relying on this quick-and-dirty test.
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
New online navigator helps patients and doctors access experimental treatments [STAT] My organization, the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, has just launched the Expanded Access Navigator. It provides in one place information about the expanded access policies of various companies and the availability of investigational medicines under them.
Why the ‘gold standard’ of medical research is no longer enough [STAT] Glorifying RCTs above other approaches, even when these other approaches may be either superior or the only practical way to get an answer, relegates patients to receiving treatments that aren’t based on the best available evidence.
Dr Mark Taylor writes about how NDG principle of ‘no surprises’ in the context of genetic and genomic medicine [National Data Guardian] A key challenge we’ve looked at is whether it is necessary for genetic and genomic data about individuals to be shared more widely than is traditional for medical data in order to ensure that people get the best diagnoses and care.
	6.9 Controverses
US Scientists Edit a Human Embryo—But Superbabies Won’t Come Easy [Wired] Which is why Mitalipov insisted on the title given to their paper: “Correction of a Pathogenic Gene Mutation in Human Embryos.” “Everyone always talks about gene editing. I don’t like the word editing. We didn’t edit or modify anything,” Mitalipov says. “All we did was unmodify a mutant gene using the existing wild type maternal gene.”
Details Published on CRISPR-treated Embryos (The Scientist] Knoepfler notes that there are still considerable technological kinks that need to be worked out before the method is perfected. For example, although the researchers didn’t observe any off-target effects, they did see indels—small insertions or deletions of base pairs at the target site—around 25 percent of the time.
U.S. scientists edit genome of human embryo, but cast doubt on possibility of ‘designer babies’ [STAT] The discovery suggests that opportunities for disease prevention are more limited than scientists assumed and that enhancement — giving a days-old embryo “better” genes — is unlikely to succeed, at least with current methods.
The Designer Baby Era Is Not Upon Us [The Atlantic] American scientists have now used CRISPR to edit human embryos, but that doesn’t mean we’re entering a Gattaca-style dystopia.
Biotechnology: At the heart of gene edits in human embryos [Nature] Clinical trials using this technique to edit human cells are already under way, for example testing the use of edited immune cells to treat cancer.
CRISPR fixes disease gene in viable human embryos [Nature] Gene-editing experiment pushes scientific and ethical boundaries.
Maine Raises Smoking Age to 21 After Lawmakers Override Veto [NY Times] Maine will become the fourth state to raise the smoking age to 21 and will adopt stricter regulations on the sale of electronic cigarettes after lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to override the governor’s veto.
In Breakthrough, Scientists Edit a Dangerous Mutation From Genes in Human Embryos [NY Times] Potentially, it could apply to any of more than 10,000 conditions caused by specific inherited mutations. Researchers and experts said those might include breast and ovarian cancer linked to BRCA mutations, as well as diseases like Huntington’s, Tay-Sachs, beta thalassemia, and even sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis or some cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Gene Editing Study in Human Embryos Points toward Clinical Trials [MIT Technology Review] Mitalipov says he believes gene editing could be used as a preventive tool to lower a newborn’s lifetime risk of a wide range of diseases, including cancer.
Deadly gene mutations removed from human embryos in landmark study [The Guardian] The procedure is controversial because genetic modifications made to an embryo affect not only the child it becomes but future generations too. “It’s still a long road ahead,” said Mitalipov. “It’s unclear when we’d be allowed to move on.”