Onco Actu du 27 avril 2018

	2.5 Etiologie - Gènes
Gene mapping: More Monty Python than Monty Python [The Mermaid's Tale] So, if biological causation is complex, as these studies and diverse other sorts of direct and indirect evidence clearly show, then why can't we pull the plug on these sorts of studies, and instead, invest in some other mode of thinking, some way to do focused studies where genetic causation is clear and real, rather than continuing to feed the welfare state of GWAS?
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
Some Thoughts on Exposure to the World Trade Center Wreckage and Cancer [JAMA Oncology] They report that WTC-exposure may be a risk factor for the development of multiple myeloma and its precursor disease, MGUS. This is appropriately worded. The operative word is “may.” These trials, because of the size of cohort, cannot identify a small increase in cancer risk due to WTC exposure, and correlation does not mean causation. Perhaps this issue is beyond the limits of science.
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Home Tests in Mind, Doudna Startup Races Rivals in CRISPR Diagnostics [Xconomy] The Broad, meanwhile, is also working to license its CRISPR diagnostic technology, which is called SHERLOCK. The SHERLOCK group published an update today in Science.
Jennifer Doudna's new CRISPR company will tackle disease detection [FierceBiotech] Its first priority is building out the CRISPR platform, which includes creating some tests in-house. It's also looking for partners—a liquid biopsy company that has identified biomarkers but doesn't have the right technology to commercialize it, Martin said.
CRISPR legend Jennifer Doudna helps some recent college grads launch a diagnostics upstart [EndPoints] A group of recent and current grad students in the Bay Area have come together to launch a new company that promises to use CRISPR technology to create a lineup of diagnostic tests that may one day make diagnosing cancer or malaria or most anything a snap.
	4.12 Biopsies liquides
Noninvasive brain tumor biopsy on the horizon [Washington University in St. Louis] Once they had the target — in this case, the brain tumor — researchers then injected microbubbles that travel through the blood similar to red blood cells. When the microbubbles reached the target, they popped, causing tiny ruptures of the blood-brain barrier that allows the biomarkers from the brain tumor to pass through the barrier and release into the bloodstream.
	4.2 Dép., diag. & prono. - Génome
Francis Collins, NIH Director, Answers Reddit’s Genomics Questions [NIH] "If you were diagnosed with cancer today, you would want to be sure that your cancer was subjected to genome sequencing to identify what pathways are causing those cells to become malignant. You would then want to use that information to choose the right course of treatment for your particular cancer, not some one-size-fits-all approach."
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Obese Patients Underrepresented in Cancer Clinical Trials [Boston University] “If obese people are poorly represented, cancer randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may fail to provide adequate information to judge the effect of treatments and dosing in real world settings,” the authors wrote.
	5.12 Immunothérapies
‘Desperation Oncology’: When Patients Are Dying, Some Cancer Doctors Turn to Immunotherapy [NY Times] “For certain people it is like, bingo, you give the drug to them and they have a long-lasting and positive benefit,” he added. “When our knowledge is not sufficient to inform our decisions, then we have an ethical conundrum.”
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T
CAR-T 2.0? A split, universal and programmable system [FierceBiotech] "Our most immediate work is to figure out what type of cancer would really benefit from this type of combinatorial targeting and control," Wong said. This could include cancers with a lot of heterogeneity that don't have a single good marker, he said. The rest will be a major engineering challenge, he added. "Every cancer is probably going to need some fine-tuning in the adaptor molecule."
CAR-T therapy could be available to NHS patients this year [PharmaTimes] NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has indicated that chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) could be available on the NHS this year, offering eligible patients a ‘ground-breaking’ approach to treating cancer.
Senti scientific co-founder Wilson Wong designs the SUPRA — a new, high performance model CAR-T [EndPoints] Working with mouse models, Wong devised a CAR he’s dubbed the SUPRA — which stands for split, universal and programmable. The central part of its promise is that the revised CAR-T is built to go after two markers for the disease, vastly improving its chance of extending the use of these drugs into hard-to-hit solid tumors while improving the specificity of the drug to cancer tissue.
NHS preparing to offer ‘game-changing’ cancer treatment [The Guardian] “The process of genetically altering a patient’s own immune cells is immensely complex and also very expensive. We hope that manufacturers can agree on a deal that ensures affordable access for patients in the UK as soon as possible, to achieve long-term remissions and even cures.”
The Million-Dollar Cancer Treatment: Who Will Pay? [Wall Street Journal] But the price of the drugs is just the beginning, hospitals and insurers say. Administering these therapies can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the tab, including lengthy hospital stays and use of other services and medicines. It isn’t clear how much hospitals will get paid for these new treatments.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
UNC researchers identify promising delivery method for immunotherapy combination [UNC] In their study, Wang and his colleagues used a nanoparticle to combine a checkpoint inhibitor with aOX40, or anti-tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 4. Since they also believe that radiation treatment can help stimulate T-cells, they added a “priming dose” of radiation.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
Bristol's Case for Opdivo Optimism Has Shaky Foundations [Bloomberg] A lot has to go right for it to fend off Merck’s surging Keytruda.
	5.3 Traitements - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Gottlieb Offers Solutions for High Generic Drug Prices, Real-Time Postmarket Surveillance [RAPS] Gottlieb—in a Tuesday statement to the US Senate appropriations committee—proposed a two-part policy solution to “modernize generic drug development and review” in order reduce drug costs with greater market competition and more generic drug substitutions.
The breakthrough therapy designation for promising cancer drugs is good for patients [STAT] Although the validity of the breakthrough designation was questioned recently in a tone-deaf article in the New England Journal of Medicine, this designation has provided patients with tremendous benefit since it was passed into law in 2012.
	5.4 Traitements - Economie
Quality Cancer Care: Not Just a Matter of Anti-cancer Medicines [ESMO] ESMO, the leading professional organisation for medical oncology, shares concerns expressed in a scientific paper and reflected in the international media about the rising costs of cancer medicines.
	5.5.1.1 ASCO (général) - Industriels
Cabozantinib to Be Featured in 15 Presentations at ASCO 2018 Annual Meeting [Exelixis] Cabozantinib data in a range of tumor types, including advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and advanced renal cell carcinoma, to be presented at ASCO. Follow-up data from the phase 1 trial of cabozantinib in combination with nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in metastatic genitourinary cancers to be highlighted.
	6.10 Politiques
Windrush case: UK to give Albert Thompson indefinite right to remain [The Guardian] Thompson was told he would have to pay £54,000 for the radiotherapy treatment he needed for prostate cancer because he could not provide officials with sufficient documentary evidence that he had lived in the UK continuously since arriving from Jamaica as a teenager in 1973. Despite having tax and national insurance records going back decades, the 63-year-old had been struggling to prove he had the right to remain in the UK.
	6.9 Controverses
Famed cancer biologist allegedly sexually harassed women for decades [Science] Verma, 70, led key studies of genes and cancer, pioneered gene therapy techniques, and was editor-in-chief of a major journal and a leader at scientific societies (including AAAS, Science’s publisher). He has spent his career at the storied Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California.