Onco Actu du 11 septembre 2018

	1. Biologie
Study links BAP1 protein to tumor suppression in kidney, eye, bile duct and mesothelioma cancers [MD Anderson Cancer Center] Gan’s team described how BAP1 encodes a key enzyme which interacts with other enzymes and cellular components to regulate genes, resulting in tumor suppression via ferroptosis.
	2. Etiologie
Study links widely-used drug azathioprine to skin cancers [Queen Mary University of London] A drug used to treat inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis, and prevent organ rejection in transplant patients, has been identified as an important contributor to skin cancer development, in research by Queen Mary University of London, University of Dundee and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
	3.1 Prévention - Tabac
Oh, How the Tables Have Turned: Court Requires FDA to Follow Law Requiring Graphic Warnings on Cigarettes [FDA Law Blog] A district court in Massachusetts scolded FDA for failing to meet a two-year deadline for issuing a final rule mandating color graphic warnings on cigarettes. This decision is important for the public health interests associated with the graphic warnings, but interesting for the loss dealt FDA under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”).
	4. Dépistage, diagnostic et pronostic
Screening: How overdiagnosis and other harms can undermine the benefits [HealthNewsReview] So maybe instead of “Screening saves lives,” a more apt assessment would be this from Sir Muir Gray of the UK: “All screening programmes do harm; some do good as well.” That is a far more accurate and helpful perspective for consumers and journalists to keep in mind.
The trouble with health statistics [Cancer World] "It is crucial to understand how even simple percentages can be manipulated to tell the desired story, for example using relative rather than absolute risks, mortality rates rather than survival rates, or quoting increased 5-year survival rates when all that has happened is that the age at diagnosis has been reduced.”
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T, thérapies cellulaires
Analyst offers Amgen a boost for its rival anti-BCMA BiTE, blemishing GSK as well as CAR-T rivals Celgene and bluebird [EndPoints] The supportive note backs a program that Amgen — which bought the BiTE from Boehringer in 2016 — has long felt is competitive to CAR-T, able to offer a distinct alternative to patients.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
OncoResponse Nabs $40M for Cancer Drugs Based On Survivors’ Antibodies [Xconomy] Any therapy that OncoResponse is able to develop would likely be used in combination with other drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors or cancer vaccines that could stimulate the immune system in the cancer patients, Stocks said in an interview.
Focusing on the tumor microenvironment, Oncoresponse garners $40 million for the next stage of the R&D journey [EndPoints] The Seattle-based company has spent the last 3 years sorting through prospective antibodies identified through their research of the “elite responders” to checkpoint inhibitors, investigating the antibodies they produce in effectively repelling cancer.
	5.12.6 Immunothérapies - AMM
European Commission Approves Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in Combination with Pemetrexed and Platinum Chemotherapy for the First-Line Treatment of Patients with Metastatic Nonsquamous NSCLC, with No EGFR or ALK Genomic Tumor Aberrations [Merck] European Approval Based on Results from Pivotal Phase 3 Trial KEYNOTE-189 Demonstrating KEYTRUDA in Combination with Pemetrexed and Platinum Chemotherapy Significantly Improved Overall Survival and Progression-Free Survival Compared with Chemotherapy Alone.
Merck's Keytruda clocks up new win as EU approves chemo cocktail [Reuters] Keytruda is the first such immunotherapy medicine to be approved in Europe for first-line use with chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.
	5.12.8 Immunothérapies - Economie
BMS' Opdivo fails to win over NICE as adjuvant melanoma therapy [Pharmafile] Because of this doubt over the robustness of the data, “cost-effectiveness estimates for nivolumab are uncertain”, the institute added. Not only does this make it impossible for the drug to be accessible on the NHS at its current price, but NICE also confirmed that Opdivo would also not be made available on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).
	5.2 Pharma
Glythera rebrands as Iksuda, pledging to solve ADC problems [FierceBiotech] Despite their promise, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have been tricky to bring to market, but the U.K. biotech formerly known as Glythera wants to change that.
	5.2.3 Pharma - économie
Is the pharma business model ready for precision medicine? [EndPoints] Precision medicine is often presented as a panacea for patients and the headline benefit of better and more certain outcomes will doubtless help many. Dig beneath the surface, however, and challenges immediately present themselves.
	5.6 ESMO
Following the tumour DNA trail to crack the secrets of personalised medicine [ESMO] Two DNA testing programs have been implemented in institutes in Spain and the UK, to match patient tumour profiles with targets of early clinical trials, and to embed whole genome sequencing (WGS) in routine oncology practice, respectively. The results of these programmes will be presented at MAP 2018.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Linguistic analysis reveals the hidden details of research grant proposal peer review reports [LSE Impact Blog] If this “negative attitude” is the effect of the enormous review pressure, then it may be an idea to organise funding differently. Why not distribute a large amount of the project money among all researchers based on a (age-related) performance indicator , without peer and panel review?
	6.10 Politiques
U.K. health minister blasts 'profiteering' pharma for trying to 'rip off taxpayers' [FiercePharma] Using rhetoric The Times characterized as unusually tough for a U.K. health minister, Hancock blasted "profiteering" by drugmakers on drugs developed with the help of government-funded research or National Health Service patient data.
	6.12 Ethique
How To Really Take Medical Conflicts Of Interest Seriously [Forbes] The Times story was arguably not fair to Baselga in some ways. It blurred the line between a consulting payment (what doctors usually get from drug companies) and the Roche’s purchase of stock he owned.
José Baselga: “I take responsibility for failing to make appropriate disclosures” [The Cancer Letter] The mea-culpa-mea-culpa-mea-culpa-mea-maxima-culpa strategy likely represents MSK’s only hope that this issue will be categorized as a problem of compliance with vague and inconsistent disclosure rules, lose intensity and blow away.
A star cancer scientist failed to disclose industry payments over the years — does that matter so much? [EndPoints] Baselga didn’t deny it. He went on to amend his work on 17 papers, but shrugged off numerous other instances where he hadn’t cited his potential conflicts of interest, saying it was never necessary.
	6.5 Médecines alternatives/complémentaires
Acupuncture versus breast cancer treatment-induced joint pain: Spinning another essentially negative study [Science-Based Medicine] The investigators behind a recent clinical trial testing acupuncture to treat joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors used to treat breast cancer are spinning it as a positive study. As is usually the case for acupuncture studies. It isn’t.
	6.6 Publications
How AI technology can tame the scientific literature [Nature] As artificially intelligent tools for literature and data exploration evolve, developers seek to automate how hypotheses are generated and validated.
Peer reviewers unmasked: largest global survey reveals trends [Nature] Scientists in emerging economies respond fastest to peer review invitations, but are invited least.
	6.9 Controverses
Appeals court hands Broad Institute a win in CRISPR patent feud [FierceBiotech] As for the Broad and UC’s fight across the pond, Broad is appealing the January decision by the European Patent Office to revoke one of its patents due to lack of novelty.
U.S. Court Affirms Broad’s CRISPR Patent; No Word of Berkeley Appeal [Xconomy] Today’s ruling could pave the way toward a massive cross-licensing deal, as often happens in biotech patent disputes. Since the seminal discoveries of the Zhang and Doudna groups, both sides have received other patents in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere.