Onco Actu du 28 mars 2019

	1. BIOLOGIE
New potential therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer discovered [MD Anderson Cancer Center] Understanding that protein syndecan-1 is acting under the control of KRAS to supply energy to pancreatic cancer cells may enable tumors with this aggressive mutation to be treated by targeting SDC1 and its presence on the cell surface may make it more vulnerable to therapeutic intervention.
	2.10 ETIOLOGIE - ALCOOL
A bottle of wine a week could increase women’s cancer risk as much as smoking 10 cigarettes [The Telegraph] The researchers said the cancer risks from alcohol were not widely understood, and they hoped the comparisons would help people to make “more informed” lifestyle choices.
How many cigarettes in a bottle of wine? [BBC News] Drinking one 750ml bottle of wine a week increases the risk of developing cancer over a lifetime by the equivalent of 10 cigarettes a week for women and five for men, a study says. The UK researchers said this was a good way of communicating the health risks of moderate drinking.
	2.6 ETIOLOGIE - ENVIRONNEMENT
U.S. jury says Bayer must pay $80 million to man in Roundup cancer trial [Reuters] Chhabria has scheduled another bellwether trial for May and a third trial is likely to also take place this year. All three will be split into causation and liability phases.
Monsanto Ordered to Pay $80 Million in Roundup Cancer Case [NY Times] The plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman, 70, used Roundup to control weeds and poison oak on his property for 26 years. In 2015, he learned that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The next year, after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen, Mr. Hardeman sued Monsanto.
	3.1 PRÉVENTION - TABAC
Keep out of reach of children—the case for increasing the legal age for tobacco purchase to 21 [BMJ] Increasing the legal age for tobacco purchase should be combined with other measures to reduce smoking rates in young people.
	3.3 PRÉVENTION - VACCINS
Japanese journalist found guilty of defamation in HPV vaccine case [Science] Vaccine advocates hope ruling’s narrow focus in will limit the global impact.
	4.5 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - COLORECTAL
Proceed with caution before changing colonoscopy recommendations, Stanford physician urges [Stanford Medicine] Successful risk-stratification and tailored screening would optimize clinical outcomes and resource use. But we are not sure that current risk prediction models are accurate enough yet to avoid missing an unacceptable number of cancers in people identified by the models as low risk.
	4.9 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - SEIN
FDA advances landmark policy changes to modernize mammography services and improve their quality [FDA] Proposed rule would require breast density reporting, enhance the FDA’s ability to enforce mammography facilities’ compliance with standards.
FDA proposes mammography rule to provide women with breast-density information [Washington Post] The Food and Drug Administration proposes updating of 25-year-old mammography standards to help ensure women get breast density information.
Dense breast notification laws tied to more screening, cancer diagnoses [Reuters] Laws that only require women to be told they have dense breasts, without any further information, don’t seem to make a difference in extra screenings or cancers detected, the study team reports in American Journal of Public Health.
Mammogram Centers Must Tell Women if They Have Dense Breasts, F.D.A. Proposes [NY Times] The new F.D.A. rules propose specific language that would be used nationwide to explain breast density, note that some women may need more imaging tests and recommend that patients talk to their doctors about their results.
	5. TRAITEMENTS
Can proton therapy be considered a standard of care in oncology? Lessons from the United States [British Journal Of Cancer] The significant failure of proton beam therapy in the USA has been its inability to develop the evidence base needed to ensure its survival.
	5.1 TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Low-dose radiation therapy improves delivery of therapeutic nanoparticles to brain tumors [Mass. General Hospital] The team describes how pretreatment with low-dose radiation increased delivery to tumors of nanoparticles carrying small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules and significantly improved survival in a mouse model of glioblastoma.
	5.10 TRAITEMENTS - ESSAIS
Trial Examines Value of Lymph Node Surgery in Advanced Ovarian Cancer [NCI] “This well-designed study highlights how we might be doing harm to the patient by removing lymph nodes that appear to be normal.”
Low risk pragmatic trials do not always require participants’ informed consent [BMJ] EU clinical trial regulations should be revised to allow the waiver or modification of informed consent in low risk pragmatic trials.
	5.12 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES
Glowing Tumors Show Scientists Where Cancer Drugs Are Working [Johns Hopkins] The technique uses PET imaging of a synthesized radiolabeled protein that locks on to tumor cells, letting researchers visually follow where a so-called checkpoint inhibitor drug binds to a tumor as it disperses.
	5.12.1 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - PARTENARIATS
Ono pumps cash into U.K. immuno-oncology R&D effort [Fierce Biotech] Ono has a track record of identifying and licensing successful cancer drugs—it picked up Japanese rights to Opdivo in 2005, four years before Bristol-Myers Squibb got involved—but its pipeline is light on assets that it discovered or picked up from outside the industry.
Cancer Research UK, LifeArc and Ono Pharma form cancer immunotherapy alliance [Cancer Research UK] The multi-year partnership brings together Cancer Research UK’s network of world-leading scientists and drug discovery expertise, LifeArc’s renowned therapeutic antibody engineering and development expertise, and Ono’s considerable track record in developing cancer immunotherapies.
OSE Immunotherapeutics Announces New Research Collaboration with Léon Bérard Cancer Center to Use Artificial Intelligence Technologies to Identify Novel Immuno-Oncology Targets [OSE] Findings from the collaboration will provide relevant information, especially for the development of novel bispecific antibodies (BiCKI® platform).
	5.3 TRAITEMENTS - FDA, EMA, NICE...
FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence touts 2018 accomplishments [EndPoints] With its goal of expediting the development and review of oncology and hematology products, OCE highlights the number of regulatory decisions it made for new and existing products in 2018.
	5.4 TRAITEMENTS - ECONOMIE
Building on the first 20 years: the NICE Connect project Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care at NICE [NICE] NICE is embarking on an ambitious multi-year programme that will review the way we produce and present guidance and advice.
	5.9 AACR
NanoString Highlights Record Number of nCounter and GeoMx Research Studies at 2019 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Conference [NanoString] Approximately 70 abstracts using NanoString’s products will be presented at AACR, spanning applications such as gene expression profiling in cancer and immunotherapy using the nCounter Analysis System, as well as highly multiplexed quantification of protein and RNA using the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP).
Bayer to showcase latest oncology research at AACR 2019 underscoring its commitment to advancing the future of cancer care [Bayer] Data presentation from ongoing Phase I study with BAY 2731954 (formerly LOXO-195), an oral and selective investigational next-generation TRK inhibitor, in patients who have progressed on or were intolerant to prior TRK inhibitors.
	5.9.12 AACR - BIOPSIES LIQUIDES
Caris Life Sciences to Present Initial Study Results for Blood-Based Prostate Cancer Test at AACR Annual Meeting [Caris] The ADAPT Biotargeting System™ is an innovative and versatile unbiased profiling platform that identifies novel molecular targets to inform and enhance drug development and advanced diagnostics. It can measure thousands of protein aberrations and is being used to develop early cancer detection assays, discover novel drug targets, and characterize protein differences in cancers.
Resolution Liquid Biopsy Assay Detects More Actionable Oncogenic Fusions with Higher Allele Frequency than Guardant360 [Resolution Bioscience] The team found that the Resolution ctDx-Lung assay identified more actionable gene fusion mutations with higher allele frequencies than the Guardant360 test. The results further demonstrate the potential of the ctDx-Lung kit for patients with advanced NSCLC.
	6. LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS
Recent Advances in Colorectal Cancer Research [Cancer Research Catalyst] As March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, we’ve put together a selection of recent colorectal cancer studies across the AACR portfolio along with screening recommendations and risk factors associated with this disease.
	6.4 MÉDICO-ÉCO
U-turn over plans to privatise cancer scanning services [The Guardian] The rethink means the two scanners used for the tests at the cancer centre at the Churchill hospital in Oxford will remain there, after the new private contractor was forced to drop plans to move them elsewhere.
	6.6 PUBLICATIONS
Plagiarism detectors are a crutch, and a problem [Nature] Academic integrity is a social problem; due diligence cannot be left to unknown algorithms. Keeping science honest depends on scientists willing to work hard to protect the literature.
	6.7.1 IA/BIOINFORMATIQUE
As AI permeates clinical analytics, Perceptive Advisors bets $40M into a storied player in the field [EndPoints] The firm has been around since 1997, curating an ever-expanding stream of operational and patient data from various sources and of various types — and churning out insights that it says can compress the clinical development timeline.
‘Godfathers of AI’ honored with Turing Award, the Nobel Prize of computing [The Verge] LeCun says he is optimistic about the prospects of artificial intelligence, but he’s also clear that much more work needs to be done before the field lives up to its promise. Current AI systems need lots of data to understand the world, can be easily tricked, and are only good at specific tasks. “We just don’t have machines with common sense,” says LeCun.
	6.9 CONTROVERSES
Weeks after California loss, J&J scores talc victory close to home [Fierce Pharma] The latest victory for J&J comes after some big losses in 2018. In July, jurors in St. Louis hit the company with a $4.69 billion verdict after a trial that combined the claims of 22 plaintiffs. J&J has appealed.
New Jersey jury finds J&J not liable in talc cancer trial; company settles three other cases [Reuters] Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday also settled three other mesothelioma talc cases pending in state courts in California, Oklahoma and New York, Chris Panatier, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Reuters.
Johnson & Johnson Cleared by New Jersey Jury in Latest Talc Cancer Trial [NY Times] Mr. Rimondi was one of about 13,000 plaintiffs who have sued Johnson & Johnson, alleging that its products caused their cancer. The company has consistently denied that its powders were ever contaminated with asbestos.