Onco Actu du 25 janvier 2019

	1.4 BIOLOGIE - TECHNOS
After ‘CRISPR babies,’ international medical leaders aim to tighten genome editing guidelines [STAT] The commission is still in the planning stages, but Britain’s Royal Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other scientific and medical groups outside the U.S. have signed on, medicine academy president Dr. Victor Dzau announced on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
How to Stop Rogue Gene-Editing of Human Embryos? [NY Times] Some U.S. researchers knew of a Chinese scientist’s intentions to implant edited embryos but were unable to stop him. Now scientific institutions are trying to devise global safeguards.
Technologies to watch in 2019 [Nature] From higher-resolution imaging to genome-sized DNA molecules built from scratch, the year ahead looks exciting for life-science technology.
	2. ETIOLOGIE
Tasmanian devil cancer unlikely to cause extinction, say experts [Swansea University] New research led by Dr Konstans Wells from Swansea University has revealed that it is more likely that the disease will fade-out or that the devils will coexist with Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) in future.
	2.6 ETIOLOGIE - ENVIRONNEMENT
French court bans sale of controversial weedkiller [Nature] Ruling prohibits sale of a glyphosate product to professionals, citing arguments that chemical is potentially carcinogenic.
	3.4 CHIMIOPRÉVENTION
The Final Verdict on Finasteride [SWOG] Finasteride, a generic hormone-blocking drug, was found to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent in the landmark Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). Long- term data, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that reduction in prostate cancer risk has continued and fewer than 100 men on the trial died from the disease.
	4.12 BIOPSIES LIQUIDES
Memorial Sloan Kettering Using Cerebral Spinal Fluid Liquid Biopsy, Sequencing to Track Glioma Evolution [Genome Web] The researchers, Mellinghoff said, detected tumor-derived DNA in CSF from 42 out of 85 patients and found that the genetic material was linked to disease burden and adverse outcome.
New Liquid Biopsy Test Detects Brain Cancer, But It Doesn't Use Blood [Forbes] The new study published today in Nature looked at 85 adults with a type of brain cancer called glioma and instead of blood, uses a sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); a colorless liquid made in the brain, which bathes the brain and spinal cord.
	4.7 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - COL DE L'UTÉRUS
Preventing cervical cancer: how a screening switch and HPV vaccination should cut cancer rates [Cancer Research UK] With the changes to the programme, samples will first be tested for the presence of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer. If the test is positive, the sample will then be analysed by specialists under the microscope to look for cell changes.
	5.1 TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Why once-promising cancer drugs failed [Duke University] Despite promising results in mice, MMP inhibitors didn’t help people with cancer live longer and some patients developed serious side effects. The new findings suggest that invasive cells switch to brute force and build a battering ram when their dissolving enzymes aren’t available.
	5.12 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES
Are We Innately Immune to Cancer? [Scientific American] Despite some groundbreaking results, current immunotherapies remain effective in only a minority of patients. The reason is that most such therapies only target one of two sides of the immune system; the adaptive response, and not the innate response.
	5.12.5 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - PHARMA
The skeptics were right: Bristol-Myers has pulled a crucial Opdivo lung filing as it awaits more data [Fierce Biotech] As some have pointed out, even if Bristol can ultimately snag an indication in TMB-high patients, uptake would depend on doctors routinely testing for the biomarker—something they don’t currently do.
Opdivo questions hang over Bristol-Myers amid sales miss [Biopharma Dive] At issue is how Bristol-Myers' chosen biomarker, TMB, relates to the more commonly used PD-L1 marker and its correlation with survival.
In Another Lung Cancer Setback, Bristol Yanks FDA App For Drug Combo [Xconomy] The results are another setback for Bristol in lung cancer, and they’re emblematic of the uncertainty surrounding the use of TMB—a measure of the levels of genetic mutations within a tumor—as an effective biomarker for cancer immunotherapy.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results [BMS] After recent discussions with the FDA, the company believes further evidence on the relationship between TMB and PD-L1 is required to fully evaluate the impact of Opdivo plus Yervoy on OS in first-line NSCLC patients. This analysis will require availability of the final data from Checkmate -227, Part 1a (Opdivo plus low-dose Yervoy or Opdivo monotherapy versus chemotherapy in patients whose tumors express PD-L1), which the company anticipates will be available in the first-half of 2019.
After kickback from the FDA, Bristol-Myers yanks its Opdivo/Yervoy BLA for high TMB approach to lung cancer [EndPoints] Longtime observers have been puzzling out the whole TMB approach, which AstraZeneca has also been turning to in the wake of its own PD-L1/CTLA-4 setbacks with Imfinzi and tremelimumab. Bristol-Myers redesigned its critical late-stage trial to shift to TMB, and it has not played out in their favor — so far.
	5.2.1 PHARMA - PARTENARIATS
Vertex sharpens focus on gene-editing in licensing deal with Merck KGaA [EndPoints] The DNA-PK inhibitor — M9831 (formerly known as VX-984) — and the preclinical drug were licensed to Merck from Vertex in January 2017 and are now part of the Darmstadt-based company’s arsenal of DNA Damage Response (DDR) inhibitors.
	5.3 TRAITEMENTS - FDA, EMA, NICE...
FDA statement from Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. announcing efforts to improve the quality of the information used to assess the effectiveness of REMS programs in supporting the safe use of medications [FDA] We’re announcing the availability of two draft guidances that will help improve our ability to ensure that the risk mitigation programs put in place for certain drugs and biologics as a requirement of their approval are working. These risk mitigation programs can help make sure that benefits of these products continue to outweigh the risks.
	6. LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS
Cancer screening and prevention expert Otis Brawley joins Johns Hopkins faculty [Johns Hopkins] Brawley will lead a broad interdisciplinary research effort of cancer health disparities at JHU's Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, working to close racial, economic, and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in the United States and worldwide.
	6.1 OBSERVATION
Cancer survival in England: national estimates for patients followed up to 2017 [Office for National Statistics] 1-year, 5-year and 10-year net-survival estimates for adults diagnosed with cancer between 2012 and 2016 and followed up to 2017, and by stage at diagnosis.
'High' survival for many cancers diagnosed at stages 1-3 [BBC News] Adults diagnosed with stage-1 skin, prostate or breast cancer have the same chance of still being alive a year later as the general population, data from the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England suggests.
Suicide risk rises in year following cancer diagnosis [Reuters] In the study, the suicide risk was highest in the second month after diagnosis, when cancer patients were almost five times more likely to die by suicide than people in the general population. When cancer patients were diagnosed with advanced tumors that had already spread through the body, their suicide risk was close to six times that of other people.
	6.6 PUBLICATIONS
The Ascent of Open Access Report [Digital Science] Countries with slower rates of development such as Japan, Canada or France have descended in the table while countries with smaller research bases have also not been able to keep up with overall production rates in spite of their significant investments (Switzerland, Netherlands).
What bioRxiv’s first 30,000 preprints reveal about biologists [Nature] More than 1 million studies are now downloaded from the site every month, mostly in neuroscience, bioinformatics and genomics.