Onco Actu du 31 janvier 2018

	1. Biologie
TARGET Study Finds Major Differences between Childhood and Adult AML [NCI] For the TARGET project, the researchers analyzed the genomic (DNA, RNA, and epigenetic) features of cancer cells from infants (less than 3 years old), children (3–14 years old), and adolescents and young adults (15–39 years old) with AML.
	2.8 Etiologie - Contraceptifs, THS
Lower risk of certain cancers with the Pill applies across lifestyles [Reuters] Overall, the study didn’t find an increased risk of breast cancer associated with birth control pills, except among women who were current smokers or regular drinkers and took oral contraceptives for at least a decade.
	3.1 Prévention - Tabac
Trump's top health official traded tobacco stock while leading anti-smoking efforts [Politico] CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald bought shares in a global tobacco giant even as her previous holdings were under review.
	3.1.1 Prévention - Tabac - e-cigs
Headlines saying ‘vaping might cause cancer’ are wildly misleading [Cancer Research UK] E-cigarettes are in the news again. This time with headlines that they may cause cancer. But the study that the stories are based on, published in the journal PNAS, doesn’t show this.
Vape shops sue to block U.S. regulation covering e-cigarettes [Reuters] The shops located in California, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Texas argue that the so-called “Deeming Rule” that deems e-cigarettes to be tobacco products was not legally adopted because it was issued by a career FDA employee, rather than an officer appointed by the president.
	3.3 Prévention - Vaccins
New Gardasil 9 vaccine boosts teens’ protection from HPV and cervical cancer by 23% [The Conversation] Australia was one of the first countries to adopt an HPV vaccination program and has one of the highest coverage rates, with around 79% of girls and 73% of boys having received the Gardasil vaccine. Those who have already had the original vaccine have excellent protection from HPV, so we are not recommending they should go back for the new vaccine.
	4.10 Dép., diag. & prono. - Poumon
In the real world, harms of lung cancer screening prove greater than expected [HealthNewsReview] An editorial accompanying the analysis noted growing evidence of the need to refine how patients are selected for screening as well as “clearly communicate risks and benefits of screening.” It added, “This is especially salient in light of recent evidence suggesting that high numbers of low-risk individuals are being screened in real-world practice.”
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
New ‘Liquid Biopsy’ Shows Early Promise in Detecting Cancer [NIH Director's Blog] Of course, the study participants were already known to have a specific type of cancer. The critical next step is to find out how well CancerSEEK works in detecting cancer in the general population among people with no history of the disease.
	5. Traitements
Foundation Medicine and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Announce Collaboration to Advance Precision Medicine Using Comprehensive Genomic Profiling to Facilitate Clinical Trial Enrollment [Foundation Medicine] Under the agreement, Foundation Medicine will provide genomic testing services for the SPECTA program through three of its genomic profiling assays.
A rude awakening from tumour cells [Nature] In women who have had breast cancer, drug treatments are often stopped five years after removal of the primary tumour. A meta-analysis shows that these individuals are still at risk of relapse.
	5.1 Traitements - Pré-clinique
Scientists pluck a light-sensitive protein from plants to study cancer metastasis [STAT] Even though microtubules are a target of several chemotherapy drugs, it is still quite mysterious how these drugs kill cancer cells. Our results support the idea that they not only target cell division, but also movement of cancer cells that underlies metastasis, which is in fact the most deadly aspect of many cancers.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Meet the Company Trying to Democratize Clinical Trials With AI [Wired] Graiver’s company started by amassing thousands of clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization, and they hired clinical experts to manually standardize all that free-wheeling trial jargon into structured language a search engine could understand. Then they trained it to categorize and identify studies using that language.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
Blood test could indicate which patients will respond to immunotherapy [institute of Cancer Research] The test gives a measure of a patient’s immune system health by comparing the number of neutrophils – which can indicate the presence of chronic inflammation and impaired immunity – with the number of lymphocytes, which are indicative of a healthy immune cell response.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Advance of the Year [ASCO] This year, ASCO named adoptive cell immunotherapy as the clinical cancer Advance of the Year. After decades of research, this powerful and decidedly unique way of treating cancer has become available to certain patients with an otherwise incurable blood cancer.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
Why Combine Immunotherapy with Targeted Radioation Therapy [The Sentinel-SITC] This is a relatively new frontier, but early results offer room for encouragement and hope, even of cure. Some major uncertainties remain, but at least the following questions have some answers.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
Brain damage cases force an FDA hold on Bellicum’s lead cell therapy — shares tank [EndPoints] Bellicum’s already suffering stock tanked on the news, instantly dropping 44%.
Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Announces Clinical Hold on BPX-501 Clinical Trials in the United States [Bellicum] Bellicum is awaiting formal communications from the FDA to determine the requirements for resuming studies, and will be working closely with the FDA to address their questions. The FDA clinical hold does not affect the ongoing BP-004 registration trial in Europe.
Bellicum's cancer drug trials on clinical hold, shares tumble [Reuters] The company said the FDA had deemed the cases of brain disease as possibly being related to its cancer drug, BPX-501.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
EMA to lose 50% of its floor space in move to temporary Amsterdam home [FierceBiotech] The moves into and out of suboptimal accommodations further complicate an already fraught and time-pressured relocation.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Trump pledges new HHS secretary Azar will get drug prices 'way down.' Why aren't pharma investors scared? [FiercePharma] During Trump's first year in office, pharma's U.S. lobby group boosted its lobby spending by 30%, according to disclosures, working on a range of issues including Medicare price negotiations, patent protections, importation of medication and more.
How to “Lower Drug Prices” Without Lowering Drug Prices [Harvard - Bill of Health] Perhaps Secretary Azar will surprise me, and take more extreme actions than I expect. Perhaps only Azar could. And even if he does not, the above-listed actions may be highly valuable ones (as I’ve argued in prior work). But don’t confuse them for punitive actions against an industry that is “getting away with murder.” The President’s rhetoric on this issue has lost its effect.
	6.1 Observation
Global improvement in cancer survival but international differences are still very wide [ecancernews] For the 10 cancers already included in the CONCORD-2 study, the researchers were able to examine trends over the 20-year period 1995–2014.
Global cancer survival rates improve, but wide gaps remain [Reuters] For the research, known as the CONCORD-3 study and published in The Lancet medical journal, the scientists analyzed patient records from 322 cancer registries in 71 countries and territories, comparing five-year survival rates for 18 common cancers for more than 37.5 million adults and children.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
In State of the Union, Trump endorses ‘right to try’ for terminally ill patients [STAT] “People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure — I want to give them a chance right here at home. It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the ‘right to try.’”
Donald Trump promised to fight Big Pharma. He never did. [Vox] From “getting away with murder” to a more pharma-friendly White House.
	6.11 Patients
What to Say When You Meet the Angel of Death at a Party [NY Times] After years of living with stage IV cancer, I have some suggestions.