Onco Actu du 28 septembre 2018

	1. Biologie
Some breast cancers have a pause button [Garvan Institute] The new research has uncovered a natural process: the primary tumour can signal the immune system to follow the breakaway cells and ‘freeze’ them. In this paused state, the cells can’t grow effectively — thereby stopping secondary tumour growth in its track. Although this research was done on mice, there are indications the same process may also happen in people.
How a sleeping cancer awakens and metastasizes [Cold Spring Harbor Lab] Egeblad’s team showed that sustained lung inflammation, caused either by exposing mice to tobacco smoke or to a component of bacteria known as endotoxin, induced common white blood cells called neutrophils to awaken nearby dormant cancer cells in an extraordinary way.
	2.10 Etiologie - Alcool
Moderate Alcohol And Breast Cancer: Real Epidemiology Or Just Statistical Correlation? [Science 2.0] By now, epidemiology has shown almost everything can cause or cure cancer. Knowledge derived from mechanistic studies might be able to do what epidemiological correlation cannot.
	2.6 Etiologie - Environnement
Glyphosate [Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority] The current assessment by the APVMA is that products containing glyphosate are safe to use as per the label instructions.
Australia: ‘No grounds’ to ban Roundup, despite glyphosate-cancer controversy [Genetic Literacy Project] The APVMA has concluded that glyphosate does not pose a carcinogenic risk to humans and that there are no grounds to place it under formal reconsideration.
	5. Traitements
Brain cancer [Nature Outlook] Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat malignancies. Moreover, in the almost 50 years since the start of the war on cancer, the prospects for people who develop brain cancer have improved much more slowly than those of individuals with other types of cancer. Despite a lack of progress in the clinic, research on this group of conditions is advancing steadily, and treatments with the potential to transform the field are on the horizon.
	5.1 Traitements - Pré-clinique
‘Star Trek’ protein could be key to repurposing EGFR lung cancer drugs in leukemia [FierceBiotech] In their study, the researchers found that the unique disposition of cysteine residues in TRIB2 makes it vulnerable to destabilization by several seemingly unrelated FDA-approved EGFR inhibitors, including Boehringer Ingelheim’s Gilotrif, Puma Biotechnology’s Nerlynx and AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso. The researchers described their findings in the journal Science Signaling.
	5.10 Traitements - Essais
Shrinking oncology phase I clinical trials: If the drug is a breakthrough, why would you ever want to utilize the maximally tolerated dose? [The Cancer Letter] Thus, my interpretation of the FDA’s position is that protocols with expansion cohorts should be the exception and not the rule, that FDA review of such protocols is required, and that if there truly is a compelling reason to study multiple expansion cohorts, that there will be many additional study requirements in the interest of both protecting patients and generating scientific knowledge.
Clinical Trials—We Get What We Pay For [JAMA Internal Medicine] This study suggests that the stronger the evidence that is generated, which is most useful to inform clinical practice, the more it costs. We get what we pay for, and high-quality clinical trial data are well worth the investment to be sure that we prioritize spending our health care resources on therapies that have been shown to benefit patients.
	5.12.1 Immunothérapies - partenariats
Cellular Biomedicine Group Enters Into Strategic Licensing and Collaboration Agreement with a Global Leader in CAR-T Cell Therapy for Patients in China [CMBG] CBMG to manufacture and supply Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel) in China.
	5.12.10 Immunothérapies - Fusions et acquisitions
Tusk Therapeutics to be acquired by Roche [Tusk] Preclinical data has shown that depleting Tregs from the tumor microenvironment can enhance and/or restore anti-tumor immunity. Tusk’s antibody has been designed to deplete these harmful Tregs, while not interfering with other immune cells acting against the tumor. Tusk’s program is expected to start clinical trials in cancer patients towards the end of 2019.
Roche scoops up a Treg player for the I/O team, plucking 1 drug and spinning off a 2nd into a new biotech [EndPoints] The pharma giant, which has been trying to move ahead in a pack of aggressive PD-1/L1 players with Tecentriq, just paid $81 million (€70 million) upfront and is adding a slate of $679 million more in milestones to grab hold of Tusk Therapeutics — a startup with two late-preclinical programs that are aimed at helping to fashion the next-gen I/O world.
	5.12.2 Immunothérapies - CAR-T, thérapies cellulaires
Genscript rebounds on HKEX with staunch defense of Legend Biotech’s CAR-T data integrity [EndPoints] Flaming Research also got some basic facts wrong in their report, Genscript says. For instance, it claimed Legend’s CAR-T employs the CD28 costimulatory domain when it in fact uses 4-1BB.
Scathing short attack from an obscure source accuses Nanjing Legend of manipulating CAR-T data — Genscript shares nosedive [EndPoints] Legend’s CAR-T data came from three “well recognized hematology hospitals” in Shanghai and Jiangsu, and one mediocre hospital in Xi’an. But it was the researchers in Xi’an who offered the most compelling data, whereas the data from the other sites didn’t hold up.
	5.12.3 Immunothérapies-combinaisons
Vaccine, anti-PD1 drug show promise against incurable HPV-related cancers [MD Anderson Cancer Center] A tumor-specific vaccine combined with an immune checkpoint inhibitor shrank tumors in one third of patients with incurable cancer related to the human papilloma virus (HPV) in a phase II clinical trial led by investigators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and reported in JAMA Oncology.
	5.12.5 Immunothérapies - Pharma
KSQ grabs $80M to move T-cell treatment for PD-1 resistance into the clinic [FierceBiotech] “What’s unique to KSQ is that we’ve been able to use this platform to screen T cells in vivo, knocking out one at a time all 20,000 genes in a T cell and asking the question of which gene being knocked out increases the capability of the T cell to get into a tumor,” Meeker said.
Akrevia Launches with $30M for Next-Gen Cancer Immunotherapy [Xconomy] Akrevia’s lead drug is an antibody that blocks CTLA-4, which acts as a brake on immune responses, and is the target of the first checkpoint inhibitor (a type of cancer immunotherapy), ipilimumab (Yervoy), that was approved by the FDA, in 2011.
F-Prime, Atlas lead cancer startup Akrevia to $30M A round [FierceBiotech] Massachusetts-based Akrevia is based on a platform that creates molecules that are designed to stay inactive until they reach the tumor microenvironment. By restricting the activity of molecules to the area around tumors, Akrevia thinks the Aklusion platform it licensed from City of Hope and Thomas Jefferson University will improve the targeting of immuno-oncology therapies.
	5.2.1 Pharma - Partenariats
J&J has decided — pharma giant dumps its development deal on Geron’s imetelstat, shattering shares [EndPoints] The biotech announced in the spring of 2017 that J&J’s review of the data from two studies of imetelstat warranted continued work in myelodysplastic syndromes and myelofibrosis. But the pharma giant $JNJ was still reserving the right to quit if the data didn’t hold up.
	5.3.4 Traitements - AMM (FDA, EMA,...)
Pfizer nabs fast OK for a new frontline lung cancer drug as pharma giant shows off its new R&D strategy [EndPoints] Dacomitinib has a narrowly defined role for cases involving an EGFR exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution mutations. It will now be sold as Vizimpro.
U.S. FDA Approves VIZIMPRO® (dacomitinib) for the First-Line Treatment of Patients with EGFR-Mutated Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer [Pfizer] Median PFS in the VIZIMPRO group was 14.7 months (95% CI: 11.1, 16.6) compared with 9.2 months (95% CI: 9.1, 11.0) in the gefitinib arm.
Pfizer's lung cancer drug gets FDA approval [Reuters] The study tested Vizimpro’s efficiency and safety in 227 patients suffering from NSCLC. The company said 27 percent of the patients reported adverse events including cough, diarrhea and rashes.
	6. Lutte contre les cancers
Global drive to tackle huge regional disparities in childhood cancer survival launched [The Telegraph] “We think our ambitious goal to cure 60 per cent of children with cancer by 2030 can be accomplished, by bringing all stakeholders together and making global partnerships,” said Dr Downing.
	6.1 Observation
Clinical Trial Participation and Treatment Duration May Influence Risk of Relapse in Adolescent and Young Adult Leukemia Patients [AACR] In this study, the researchers assembled a retrospective cohort of ALL patients diagnosed between ages 1 and 39 and treated at City of Hope, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, between 1990 and 2010. In all, 91 patients were children (age 1 to 14) and 93 were AYA (age 15 to 39).
	6.10 Politiques
France seeks slim rise to research budget amid spending cuts [Nature] Research minister Frédérique Vidal says the figures are positive: if the proposals are approved, the ministry’s budget will have risen by 5.3% in two years, she told a press conference at the Paris-Saclay science park outside the capital on 25 September. The pots for basic research and the ANR would rise by 8% and 9.3%, respectively, over the same period, she said.
	6.10.1 Politiques (USA)
ASCO Praises Congress for Continuing to Invest in Federal Research [ASCO] ASCO applauds Congress for passing a $2 billion increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which will bring NIH's budget to a total of $39.1 billion and the National Cancer Institute's to a total of $6.147 billion.
	6.3 Associations/Fondations
Breast cancer charity demands action to avert rise in deaths [The Guardian] Death toll projected to climb by 2022 due to increase in incidence of disease and ageing population.