Onco Actu du 19 décembre 2017

	1. Biologie
Study prompts new ideas on cancers’ origins [WUSTL] The findings, in mice and in human stomach cells, also raise questions about how cancer cells may evade treatment.
	3. Prévention
Where does cancer come from? We must talk about preventable risk [The Guardian] Most people know about the link between smoking and cancer but few are aware of the other major and controllable lifestyle factors.
	3.3 Prévention - Vaccins
What the Gardasil Testing May Have Missed [Slate] There’s no evidence that the HPV vaccine causes serious harm, but an investigation shows the trials weren’t designed to properly assess safety.
Et Tu, Slate? Flaws with Their Questions About Gardasil [vaxopedia] Although the study design for Gardasil used for licensing in Europe might have been suboptimal, although that doesn’t really come across in this Slate piece, it seems clear that it didn’t result in safety data being missed, and as post-licensure tests have confirmed, Gardasil is safe.
	4.1 Dép., diag. & prono. - Prostate
Could Genomics Influence Prostate Cancer Treatment? [Cancer Research Catalyst] In univariate, but not multivariate, analysis, biochemical recurrence was significantly lower if the prostate cancer had a TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion with interstitial gene retention compared with those that had interstitial gene deletion.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Genetic Variation Gets More Real All the Time [In the Pipeline] It’s worth realizing, though, that most of the stories about personalized medicine seem to assume that we’ll sequence someone’s genome and find the drug or combination that will be much more likely to work. But what this paper suggests (and what has always seemed statistically more likely) is that it’s going to be mostly about telling people that the drugs that work for the rest of the population won’t work for them.
	4.9 Dép., diag. & prono. - Sein
Mutational Signatures May Identify Patients with Breast Cancer Most Likely to Benefit from Platinum-based Chemotherapy [AACR] The researchers performed whole-genome sequencing on tumor tissue and matched normal tissue from 93 patients with breast cancer, 33 of whom had been treated with a platinum-based chemotherapy.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Keytruda falls hard at gastric cancer hurdle [Pharmafile] There was a time when PD-1/L1 immunotherapy treatments could do no wrong, blasting through indication after indication. However, the limits of the therapies are beginning to be found with a series of surprise failures across a number of indications.
	5.12.1 Immunothérapies - partenariats
Regeneron pairs PD-1 latecomer with ISA’s HPV immunotherapy [FierceBiotech] ISA101 is based on synthetic long peptides or SLPs, which are used to deliver oncogenic antigens in the hope of stimulating an immune response to tumors. It has already been put through its paces as a monotherapy in a proof-of-concept study published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year, as well as in combination studies.
On a new deal spree, Regeneron buys into ISA in pursuit of a checkpoint combo [EndPoints] The checkpoint field has exploded over the past few years, leading to all over a thousand clinical trials by the leaders in the field. Regeneron and Sanofi believe they will be ready to file for their first approval of cemiplimab in Q1.
	5.12.6 Immunothérapies - AMM
Bristol-Myers Squibb Receives Positive CHMP Opinion Recommending Approval of Yervoy (ipilimumab) for the Treatment of Pediatric Patients 12 Years and Older with Unresectable or Metastatic Melanoma [BMS] First positive CHMP opinion for an immuno-oncology agent for pediatric patients.
	5.2 Pharma
Roche touts Swiss-led R&D unit after years in Genentech's shadow [Reuters] Topping Roche Pharma Research & Early Development’s list of pipeline hopefuls is CEA-TCB, a so-called bispecific antibody drug that brings a patient’s cancer-fighting T-cells closer to tumor cells in order to kill them.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA)
Brentuximab Vedotin Approved for Two Rare Lymphomas [NCI] The approval was based on results from a phase 3 trial called ALCANZA that enrolled patients with mycosis fungoides or primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma that overexpressed the CD30 protein (CD30-positive) who had been previously treated for their disease.
	5.7 SABCS
A New PARP Drug For Breast Cancer? I'm Thrilled! [Forbes] Pfizer asserts that talazoparib differs from the other PARP inhibitors based on a “highly potent dual-mechanism” of inhibition; based on preclinical data, this agent is said to block PARP enzymatic activity and also to trap PARP on single-strand DNA breaks.
	6.1 Observation
Cancer survivors age faster and die sooner, major study suggests [The Telegraph] The researchers have called for greater research into how to stave off the early ageing process and premature disease, to help improve the lives of cancer survivors.
Cervical cancer deaths in over-50s predicted to rise sharply in England [The Guardian] Rates of diagnoses and death set to rise in women not vaccinated against HPV, but likely to be almost eradicated in younger women, say researchers.
	6.5 Médecines alternatives
FDA proposes new, risk-based enforcement priorities to protect consumers from potentially harmful, unproven homeopathic drugs [FDA] The FDA is not alone in reexamining its approach to homeopathy. In November 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a new enforcement policy explaining that they will hold efficacy and safety claims for over-the-counter homeopathic drugs to the same standard as other products making similar health claims.
FDA officials to target high-risk alternative remedies [STAT] The Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued a new proposal for regulating homeopathic medicines that have long been on the fringe of mainstream medicine. The agency plans to target products that pose the biggest safety risks, including those marketed for children or for serious diseases.
	6.7 DMP, Big Data & applis
Could Bitcoin technology help science? [Nature] In Pagliari’s experience, researchers exploring blockchain are becoming wise to its problems. She notes that fellow speakers at a recent London ‘hackathon’ on using blockchains to improve clinical trials, for which Microsoft was a partner, were careful to warn about hype.
	6.9 Controverses
Ms. Inappropriate Defends The Status Quo [CardioBrief] My own belief, which I believe is shared by many in the “less is more” community, is that genuine improvements in the healthcare system will be difficult to implement and impossible to pay for until we begin to rein in the excess and abuse that Rosenbaum herself concedes in the course of her article.