Onco Actu du 23 janvier 2019

	1. BIOLOGIE
Molecular profiling could catch lung cancer early and lead to new treatments [University College London] The world’s first genetic sequencing of precancerous lung lesions could pave the way for very early detection and new treatments, reports a new study led by UCL researchers.
	2.6 ETIOLOGIE - ENVIRONNEMENT
Bayer asks California judge to limit evidence in another Roundup cancer trial [Reuters] U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who oversees the federal Roundup litigation with some 680 cases pending before him, on Jan. 3 approved the company’s request to initially limit evidence in upcoming trials before him.
	4.3 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - INDUSTRIELS
23andMe Receives FDA Clearance for Genetic Health Risk report that looks at a Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Syndrome [23andMe] This FDA clearance follows several years of work by 23andMe that has led to four separate FDA de novo authorizations for direct-to-consumer genetic tests for carrier status, genetic health risk reports, select BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants and pharmacogenetic reports.
	4.7 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - COL DE L'UTÉRUS
4 things I wish I'd known sooner about smear tests - and how women can take back control [The Telegraph] I certainly never thought to question my own early experiencess. "Are you alright?" the well-intentioned nurse would ask - while prodding and scraping around - and I would squeeze my eyes shut, tears rolling down my cheeks and whisper "fine thanks," through gritted teeth.
If we don’t stop smearing smear tests, women will die of embarrassment [The Guardian] Women continue to receive negative messages about this simple, benevolent test – and that could mean thousands of lives lost unnecessarily.
	5.1 TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Scientists Discover New Potential Way To Stop Breast Cancer Spreading [Forbes] The team gave mouse models with breast cancer an antibody which targets a specific integrin called Beta-1, which they found to be particularly important. They found that by inhibiting integrin Beta-1, they could sensitize the DTCs (disseminated tumor cells) without awakening them and causing them to divide, therefore minimizing the risk of sparking off tumor growth.
	5.10 TRAITEMENTS - ESSAIS
Bowel cancer trial aims to reset gut bacteria (The Guardian] The procedure involves transplanting a stool sample, along with the microbes it contains, from a healthy donor. The trial will focus on safety and side-effects. One theory under investigation is that the bacterium sticks to pre-cancerous cells and shields them from being spotted by the immune system. This could potentially leave them to spiral into a cancerous state and form a tumour.
	5.12.2 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - CAR-T, THÉRAPIES CELLULAIRES
Immunochina raises $20M for blood cancer CAR-T [Fierce Biotech] Immunochina is targeting China’s domestic market to begin with, but co-founder and CEO Ting He, Ph.D., is frank about the biotech’s aspiration to become an international CAR-T player.
	5.2 PHARMA
AbbVie, J&J's Imbruvica falls short in pancreatic cancer [Biopharma Dive] Despite advances in cancer treatment overall, combination studies over four decades have shown little in the way of real advances in survival benefit for pancreatic cancer patients over gemcitabine alone, the standard-of-care for metastatic disease.
AbbVie, J&J concede a failure for blockbuster Imbruvica in their PhIII shot at pancreatic cancer [EndPoints] Danelle James, the head of clinical science at AbbVie subsidiary Pharmacyclics, said the setback wouldn’t affect an ambitious range of clinical trials aimed at further expansion of the market for their drug. A quick check on clinicaltrials.gov revealed dozens of trials either underway or scheduled to start.
	5.2.2 PHARMA - FUSIONS & ACQUISITIONS
Roche says 'no thanks' to megadeals, but don't count out smaller M&A [Fierce Pharma] The company is “extremely cautious when it comes to any kind of megamerger,” Roche Chairman Christoph Franz told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Not only are huge deals costly, money-wise, but integrating big buyouts costs time and effort that's "deviating you, maybe from some of your core activities, like, for example, research and development.”
GSK completes acquisition of TESARO, an oncology focused biopharmaceutical company [GSK] GSK also believes PARP inhibitors offer significant opportunities for use in the treatment of multiple cancer types. In addition to ovarian cancer, Zejula is currently being investigated for use as a possible treatment in lung, breast and prostate cancer, both as a monotherapy and in combination with other medicines, including with TESARO’s own anti-PD-1 antibody (dostarlimab, formerly known as TSR-042).
Celgene, sold for $74 billion, leaves a legacy of chutzpah in science and drug pricing [STAT] When the company launched thalidomide as a treatment for leprosy in 1998, it cost $6 a pill. As it became clear that it was also an effective cancer drug, Celgene slowly raised the price, quadrupling it by the time it received approval for an improved molecule, Revlimid. Then, it slowly increased the price of Revlimid by a total of 145 percent, according to Sector & Sovereign LLC, a pharmaceutical consultancy. Revlimid now costs $693 a pill. In 2017, Revlimid and another thalidomide-derived cancer drug represented 76 percent of Celgene’s $12.9 billion in annual sales.
	5.2.3 PHARMA - ÉCONOMIE
TG Therapeutics’ shares jump as umbralisib wins FDA’s breakthrough status [EndPoints] The designation was awarded on the basis of interim data from a cohort of MZL (marginal zone lymphoma) patients, who have undergone at least one prior therapy, in an ongoing mid-stage study — UNITY-NHL — testing umbralisib, which is a PI3K delta inhibitor.
	5.3.4 TRAITEMENTS - AMM (FDA, EMA,...)
FDA approves third biosimilar of Roche's Herceptin [Biopharma Dive] A copycat of Roche's Herceptin, Ontruzant has the go-ahead across all eligible indications, and will be distributed by partner Merck & Co in the U.S.
European Commission Approves BLINCYTO® (blinatumomab) In Patients With Philadelphia Chromosome Negative Minimal Residual Disease-Positive B-cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [Amgen] BLINCYTO is the First and Only Therapy for Minimal Residual Disease Approved in the European Union.
	6. LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS
Cancer Survival: Improving Health After Treatment [Cancer Research Catalyst] The U.S. health care system faces a looming challenge: how to deal with the wide array of health and wellness aftereffects faced by children and adults who were once cancer patients.
Teenager with brain tumour to undergo proton beam therapy [The Guardian] The boy will be treated at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, the UK’s first dedicated centre.
	6.10.1 POLITIQUES (USA)
The NIH needs to become leaner and more innovative. Here’s how to do that [STAT] The NIH extramural grant program is in desperate need of reform so it can embrace young investigators and those with paradigm-shifting ideas. Runaway indirect costs for large, wealthy institutions needlessly consume billions of dollars instead of directly supporting up-and-coming scientific investigators.
In oversight inquiry, key Democrat seeking 10 years’ worth of pricing, sales, research data from drug companies [STAT] Republicans on Capitol Hill are willing to back President Trump on everything from his 4 a.m. tweets to his multibillion-dollar wall. But when my colleague Lev Facher and I asked them what they thought about his plan to tie what Medicare pays for drugs to what other countries pay, key members of the GOP weren’t exactly singing its praises.
PhRMA spent a record-breaking $27.5 million on lobbying in 2018, new filings show [STAT] The group’s eye-popping 2018 spending — sums that support some two dozen internal lobbyists as well as a crowd of external contractors — is a sign of the increasingly existential threat the drug industry faces in Washington.
	6.3 ASSOCIATIONS/FONDATIONS
Meet the scientists taking on 3 of the biggest challenges in cancer research [Cancer Research UK] “I remember being in Edinburgh for the very first meeting. I was sitting around a table with oncologists, basic scientists, engineers and mathematicians – all experts in their field. And it dawned on me that this is what a Grand Challenge is, bringing people from around the world and from different disciplines together, some of whom might never have met if it weren’t for this award, to tackle some of the biggest questions in cancer research.”
Cancer Research UK tackles global cancer challenges with £60 million in funding [Cancer Research UK] These five-year research programmes will investigate how billions of microorganisms living in our bodies, called the microbiome, could be manipulated to treat bowel cancer; find new ways to tackle cancers linked to chronic inflammation; and develop a deeper understanding of why cancers develop in some tissues but not in others.
Microbiome, inflammation and mutations: US researchers win £60M in Cancer Research UK grants to lead ‘grand challenges’ [EndPoints] Scientists from Harvard, UCSF and Brigham and Women’s Hospital will lead the charge, coordinating teams of 10 or 14 scattered between the US, UK, Canada, The Netherlands, Spain, and Israel.
	6.7.3 DMP
Expanding the Application of Deep Learning to Electronic Health Records [Google AI Blog] Any endeavor to demonstrate the promise of machine learning requires intense collaboration between engineers, doctors, and medical researchers to make sure the work benefits patients, physicians, and health systems, and that it is equitable. Google is already fortunate to partner with some of the best academic medical centers in the world and we are now expanding this work to include Intermountain Healthcare, based in Utah.
The Electronic Medical Mess [Chris Dwan] Over the years, I’ve worked with at least half a dozen projects where earnest, intelligent, diligent folks have tried to unlock the potential stored in mid to large scale batches of electronic medical records. In every case, without exception, we have wound up tearing our hair and rending our garments over the abysmal state of the data and the challenges in getting access to it at all. It is discordant, incomplete, and frequently just plain-old incorrect.