Onco Actu du 18 mars 2019

	1. BIOLOGIE
One experiment: Observing cancer’s progress in a mouse prostate [Cold Spring Harbor lab] The imaging technique is called serial two-photon tomography (STPT). The two labs have used it to not only map in unprecedented detail the dense and complex structure that is a mouse prostate but also to reveal the progression of the cancerous cells acting within.
How secret conversations inside cells are transforming biology [Nature] Organelles — the cell’s workhorses — mingle far more than scientists ever appreciated.
	1.1 BIOLOGIE - GÈNES
Tissue-specificity in cancer: The rule, not the exception [Science] Understanding how and why distinct genetic alterations promote cancer in one tissue but not another remains an important and enigmatic question in cancer research.
	2. ETIOLOGIE
No, more than 200 scientists did not just sign a petition warning about cancer from Airpods. That doesn’t mean there’s no risk [Quartz] The scientist declaration referenced in all the news posts is actually from 2015, and was an appeal to governments to take seriously the potential health threats of the type of non-ionizing radiofrequency radiation emitted by cell phones and other wireless devices. Yes, those include Bluetooth devices, like Airpods. But it’s not that simple.
	2.6 ETIOLOGIE - ENVIRONNEMENT
MIT Historian Alleges United Nations Scientific Cover-Up Of Death And Disease Toll From Chernobyl [Forbes] In fact, Brown's book argues not only that the whole of mainstream science surrounding Chernobyl is wrong, but so too is the mainstream science regarding the health impacts of radiation.
	3.1 PRÉVENTION - TABAC
Stop Smoking Services stubbed out across England [Cancer Research UK] The report links the continued decline in specialist services to Government cuts, which have seen funding for local Stop Smoking Services decline by £41.3 million since 2014/2015 – a drop of 30% in under 4 years.
	3.2 PRÉVENTION - OBÉSITÉ
Action needed to stop takeaway temptation harming kids' diets [Cancer Research UK] In the wake of the poll results, the charity is urging the Welsh Government to reform rules to prevent new fast food outlets from opening near schools.
	4. DÉPISTAGE, DIAGNOSTIC ET PRONOSTIC
Getting at the roots rather than pruning the branches of overdiagnosis [BMJ] As any arborist knows, it is easier to train a tree early in its growth rather than attempting heavy pruning after the tree is well established. Rather than pruning one branch at a time, we need to address the roots of overdiagnosis by introducing probability-based medicine throughout medical training.
3D printed tungsten could improve gamma camera images [Institute of Cancer Research] A crucial element of gamma cameras is a dense shield, or collimator, usually made of lead. The shield has a honeycomb structure of holes to allow enough radiation through to create an image, while blocking unwanted radiation so the image is sharp.
	4.10 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - FDA, EMA, NICE,...
Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. and Jeff Shuren, M.D., Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, on efforts to evaluate materials in medical devices to address potential safety questions [FDA] We’re undertaking a broad effort to engage the public, scientists and industry stakeholders to gather information and help us determine the current state of the science, critical gaps in the existing science that need to be addressed, what approaches should be considered to further our understanding of medical device materials and improve the safety of devices for patients.
	4.7 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - COL DE L'UTÉRUS
Screening service in 'meltdown' as more women attend smears [The Guardian] The crisis has been triggered by a surge in numbers of women attending smear tests following a government public awareness campaign launched earlier this month. The campaign coincides with an exodus of biomedical scientists due to a restructuring process that will reduce nearly 50 hospital screening laboratories to nine this summer.
	4.9 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - SEIN
New Susan G. Komen® Study Unveils High Cost of Diagnostic Tests for Breast Cancer Serves as a Barrier to Needed Care [Komen] Study shows women delay or avoid diagnostic exams due to high out-of-pocket costs.
	5. TRAITEMENTS
Darolutamide Delays the Spread of Some Prostate Cancers [NCI] The ARAMIS trial, which was sponsored by Bayer and Orion Corporation—the co-developers of darolutamide—included men whose prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were rising at a rate that has been associated with an increased risk of metastasis and death in previous studies.
	5.10 TRAITEMENTS - ESSAIS
Gottlieb criticizes sponsors’ ‘continued reluctance’ to rethink clinical trials [Fierce Biotech] In Gottlieb’s view, the FDA has created opportunities to streamline clinical development and cut time to market that sponsors are failing to take, in part due to legacy business models that discourage collaboration and data sharing in the “extraordinarily complex and expensive” clinical trial sector.
FDA's Gottlieb calls for greater adoption of new clinical trial tools [Biopharma Dive] Rethinking how clinical trials are designed isn't without concerns, however. Greater use of smaller or single-arm studies can speed drugs to patients in need of treatment, but can also result in approvals for drugs later shown to be less effective than first thought.
Scott Gottlieb to biopharma: You wanted us to help modernize R&D, now go out and do it [EndPoints] It’s not just the drug makers, says Gottlieb. CROs, who do much of the heavy lifting in the clinic, share a considerable portion of the blame.
	5.12.8 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - ECONOMIE
Analysts: Keytruda has a blockbuster market not factored into Merck’s forecasts—China [Fierce Pharma] One way Keytruda could reach more patients is by getting itself onto the government’s insurance coverage. Cantor now expects currently approved PD-1 players will begin negotiations to snag a place on the National Reimbursement Drug List this year.
	5.2 PHARMA
FDA delays Karyopharm PDUFA to review extra information [Fierce Biotech] Massachusetts-based Karyopharm reached this point by pursuing a belief that inhibiting the nuclear export protein XPO1 will cause tumor suppressor proteins to accumulate in the cell nucleus. The accumulation could lead to the death of cancer cells without harming healthy tissues.
Approval decision delay seen as positive for Karyopharm [Biopharma Dive] FDA reviewers questioned whether the efficacy shown was sufficient to outweigh the risks of treatment, and noted the lack of a control arm made it difficult to isolate selinexor's treatment effect from dexamethasone.
Karyopharm Announces FDA Extension of Review Period for Selinexor New Drug Application [Karyopharm] Following the ODAC meeting, at the FDA's request, Karyopharm submitted additional, existing clinical information as an amendment to the NDA, which allowed the FDA to extend the PDUFA action date by three months.
	5.2.1 PHARMA - PARTENARIATS
ExcepGen emerges from Y Combinator, taking aim at better proteins for drug discovery [Fierce Biotech] It’s still early days for this collaboration, but Rees said AstraZeneca’s early data shows that ExcepGen’s technology is able to express proteins that the Big Pharma has had trouble expressing in-house.
Servier Licenses CureMatch Tech for Custom Cancer Drug Treatments [Xconomy] The company, which CEO Bob Manning says has raised about $2.5 million in outside investment, says its software can help guide customized care by using a patient’s genetic information to score and rank treatment options. It calls the guides it produces PreciGENE reports.
Merck KGaA enters drug discovery partnership with AI firm Itkos [Pharmafile] The firm’s AI technology, which is based on “deep generative models”, promises to “bring speed and efficiency to the drug discovery process” by quickly singling out molecules which satisfy the requirements of multiple bioactivity and drug-like criteria for clinical testing.
	5.3 TRAITEMENTS - FDA, EMA, NICE...
Meeting highlights from the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) 12-15 March 2019 [EMA] PRAC starts review on screening patients before treatment with fluorouracil, capecitabine, tegafur and flucytosine to decrease the risk of side effects.
	6.11 PATIENTS
'I was diagnosed with cancer at seven months pregnant' [BBC News] Sarah's treatment had stopped about three weeks before Noah was born. It resumed only a week after his birth. And the chemotherapy meant she could not breastfeed her son.
	6.4 MÉDICO-ÉCO
Nicola Bennett: The US healthcare system can be a callous and financially menacing force [BMJ] After the funeral, after the family and friends had gone home, and once it was just Joe and I to carry on with life, the bills piled up: from the hospital, the surgeon, the anaesthetist, the local emergency room where we had taken Will when he had a crisis, the labs, the radiographers, and the MRI operators.
	6.7.1 IA/BIOINFORMATIQUE
TGen Adjusting to New Realities of Bioinformatics for Precision Medicine [Genome Web] IT has become a commodity, but bioinformaticians remain in high demand. The nature of biomedical research has changed, too. "When I started, lab people came in with white coats and pipettes," Lowey said. "Now, they may have the white coats or they may not, but they're carrying around laptops. Everything has moved into in silico modeling," Lowey said.
AI Algorithms Are Now Shockingly Good at Doing Science [Wired] Whether probing the evolution of galaxies or discovering new chemical compounds, algorithms are detecting patterns no humans could have spotted.