Onco Actu du 5 février 2017

	2.4 Etiologie - Portables, ondes e-m
Rodents and Radiation: What to Take Away from New Study Findings [ACS] “A final point to remember is that we should not base our decisions or our point of view on a single study. When deciding where the truth lies, you really need to take all the available evidence into account. And in fact, most studies looking into cell phones and cancer are negative.”
High exposure to radiofrequency radiation linked to tumor activity in male rats [NIH] NTP’s draft conclusions were released today as two technical reports, one for rat studies and one for mouse studies. NTP will hold an external expert review of its complete findings from these rodent studies March 26-28.
Of Science, Certainty, and the Safety of Cell Phone Radiation [Undark] How to cover an issue when the stakes for human health seem so high, scientific questions still linger, and passions run so deep?
High doses of cellphone radiation linked to some cancers in rats [STAT] Whereas only 28 percent of unexposed male rats survived to the end of the study, 48 percent to 68 percent of the rats in the different exposure arms survived the full two years.
New cell phone and health studies don't eliminate uncertainty [Science] In a counterintuitive result, male rats and mice exposed to radiation lived longer, and had lower levels of age-related kidney disease, than males not exposed to radiation.
High levels of cellphone radiation linked to tumors in male rats: U.S. study [Reuters] Brawley said if cellphone users are concerned about this data in animals they should wear an earpiece.
Statement from Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health on the recent National Toxicology Program draft report on radiofrequency energy exposure [FDA] Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors. Based on this current information, we believe the current safety limits for cell phones are acceptable for protecting the public health.
Radiation from cellphones is not hazardous to your health, government scientists say [LA Times] Strikingly, the rats exposed to radiation lived longer than rats in an unexposed group that served as controls. The researchers were at a loss to explain this.
Cellphones Are Still Safe for Humans, Researchers Say [NY Times] The rodents in the studies were exposed to radiation nine hours a day for two years, more than people experience even with a lot of cellphone use, so the results cannot be applied directly to humans, said John Bucher, a senior scientist at the National Toxicology Program, during a telephone news briefing.
Cellphone radiation study finds mixed effects in rodents, without clear implications for human health [Washington Post] The strongest finding in the new study involved male rats — but not female rats or male or female mice — that developed tumors in the nerves surrounding their hearts.
	3.1 Prévention - Tabac
Senators traded in tobacco stocks while sitting on health committee [STAT] The revelations come on the heels of the resignation of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, who left her post as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Wednesday, the day after Politico reported that she bought and sold tobacco company stock while in that job.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
A prescription for cancer diagnostics [Nature Medicine] Cancer research has made great strides in identifying effective therapies for treating advanced-stage tumors. The next challenge is moving the battle to earlier stages of disease.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Cracks in the code: Why mapping your DNA may be less reliable than you think [Globe and Mail] The Personal Genome Project was supposed to revolutionize medicine, but the results reveal how much we still have to learn. Carolyn Abraham looks at the risk of misleading results as DNA testing enters mainstream medicine.
	4.7 Dép., diag. & prono. - Col de l'utérus
Women called back in after review of cervical cancer screening lab [The Guardian] So far, 900 smear test samples have been reviewed, and 17 women have been invited for further assessment. Of those, nine need to be rescreened while eight have been referred for further investigation.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
A New Look at Clinical Success Rates [In the Pipeline] The probability of success (POS) of everything outside of oncology is 20.9%, which the POS in oncology itself is 3.4%.
	5.12.10 Immunothérapies - Fusions et acquisitions
Buyout buzz hits fever pitch on report that Nektar is ‘exploring options’ [EndPoints] The drug is an IL-2 immuno-oncology therapy — built from the ground up by the biotech — which is designed to bind to the CD122 receptor on the surface of CD-8 and CD-4 positive immune cells to whip up an attack on various cancers.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
Global landscape of CAR cell therapeutic companies [Cell Trials] At least 14 large BioPharma companies currently have CAR cell programs/ assets, obtained via licensing and/ or acquisitions (e.g. Pfizer, Amgen, Shire, Regeneron, Johnson & Johnson, ONO Pharmaceuticals, Takeda…).
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
AstraZeneca stops monotherapy study at centerpiece of $500M buyout [FierceBiotech] MEDI0680 is a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor AstraZeneca picked up in its 2013 takeover of Amplimmune. AstraZeneca paid $225 million upfront and committed to up to $275 million in milestones to buy the firm in 2013.
	5.12.8 Immunothérapies - Economie
Pharma Investors Suffer From Tax Myopia [Blomberg] For now at least, Keytruda is in an exceptionally valuable pole position that Merck is spending aggressively to maintain; the company said on its conference call that there are 700 registered clinical trials involving the drug, 400 of them testing it in combination with other medicines.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Evaluation of advanced therapy medicines [EMA] Updated procedural advice clarifies regulatory process for advanced therapy medicinal products.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Faslodex rejected by NICE for NHS breast cancer use [Pharmafile] Bad news for breast cancer patients in the UK as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence announces it has decided to reject AstraZeneca’s Faslodex (fulvestrant) on the basis that it cannot reconcile its cost-effectiveness for use on the NHS.
Breast cancer drug approved for NHS in England [Cancer Research UK] Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said the decision was a long time coming, but that she was pleased at tough negotiation and flexibility by NHS England and NICE, and the willingness of Roche to compromise on price.
	6.1 Observation
Breast cancer death rate down 10% in just five years [Cancer Research UK] Despite the ‘big four’ cancer types seeing death rates fall by over 5%, the overall rate is tempered by the hard-to-treat cancer types. Survival remains stubbornly low in cancers of the pancreas, brain and oesophagus showing how much research is still needed to lower mortality rates across the board.
So men are dying because they don’t have women’s brains? Show me the evidence [The Guardian] What is driving men’s mortality rate from prostate cancer is not masculine brain structures – it’s the NHS spending half as much money on communication and treatment as it does for breast cancer.
	6.11 Patients
'I had a cough - in a few days I'm told it is cancer and without treatment, I will be dead in three months' [The Telegraph] These columns were written by Sue Margolis for the Telegraph last year with the idea that she would chronicle her cancer journey in a regular series for the newspaper. Unfortunately, Sue became too ill to continue writing for us, but her first five columns are published below…
‘Cancer I could deal with. Losing my breast I could not’ [The Guardian] Even more crucial is to realise that being a cancer patient, terrifying though it is, doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility to make choices. Too many people think their doctor can tell them what they should do.
	6.8 Communication
Facebook boss Nicola Mendelsohn reveals she has incurable cancer [The Telegraph] "Just over a year ago I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma – a slow developing cancer of the white blood cells that's not rare and that has no cure. It is quite an unknown disease which is why I've decided to raise awareness by telling my story in the hope of driving research and a better understanding of it."