Onco Actu du 11 avril 2019

	1. BIOLOGIE
Cancer: central role of cell ‘skeleton’ discovered [Cnrs] If the necessary conditions are not met, these actin fibres are not synthesised, and the cell does not divide – except in the case of cancerous cells, which can override this control mechanism and proliferate where they should not.
	1.1 BIOLOGIE - GÈNES
Why do certain faulty genes only cause cancer in some parts of the body? [Cancer Research UK] The bits of DNA that are tightly wrapped up and those that are loose will vary depending on the type of cell. This means that although all cells have the same instructions, the bits of the manual that are available vary depending on where the cell is in the body. Scientists think that a similar thing is true in cancer.
	1.4 BIOLOGIE - TECHNOS
Scientists use DNA-editing tool CRISPR to catalogue cancer’s weaknesses [Cancer Research UK] “This tool will be freely available for scientists across the world to understand what makes a cancer a cancer, and how we might target different types of cancers much more effectively than we do today."
Scientists use editing tool to identify key cancer genes [The Guardian] Praising the tool that made the breakthrough possible, Dr Kosuke Yusa, the co-lead author of the findings, said Crispr was “incredibly powerful” and “enables us to do science at a scale and with a precision that we couldn’t do five years ago.
Loss of a DNA repair system creates a unique vulnerability in many cancer types [Broad Institute] Reporting in Nature, researchers led by members of the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap) project at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute describe one such vulnerability shared by a large subset of colon, gastric, endometrial, and ovarian cancer cell lines. The gene in question, WRN, emerges from this work an attractive new drug development target.
'Dismantling cancer' reveals weak spots [BBC News] A team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute disabled every genetic instruction, one at a time, inside 30 types of cancer. It has thrown up 600 new cancer vulnerabilities and each could be the target of a drug.
	3.1.1 PRÉVENTION - TABAC - E-CIGS
Exclusive: India trade ministry says no legal basis to ban e-cigarette imports - document [Reuters] This comes amid repeated calls for a ban from the country’s health ministry, which urged states and government agencies last year in an “advisory” to step up efforts to halt sales and imports, warning vaping devices pose a “great health risk”.
	3.3 PRÉVENTION - VACCINS
Childhood HPV vaccination 'profoundly' cuts cervical disease in young women [Reuters] Scotland, which has an organized national cervical screening program, introduced a national immunization program against HPV in 2008, targeting girls aged 12 and 13, followed by a three-year catch-up program up to age 18.
	4.12 BIOPSIES LIQUIDES
Natera Announces Plans to Commercialize Tumor Whole Exome Sequencing from Plasma [Natera] The assay does not require tumor tissue and will interrogate approximately 20,000 genes from circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to detect somatic mutations, representing a significant increase in coverage over most commercially available fixed liquid biopsy panels.
	5.10 TRAITEMENTS - ESSAIS
High-dose vitamin D shows benefit in patients with advanced colorectal cancer [Dana-Farber Cancer Institute] First randomized clinical trial of vitamin D in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer found delayed disease progression with high dose supplements combined with chemotherapy. Encouraging results prompt planned evaluation in a large phase 3 trial.
	5.2 PHARMA
Unblinded: Hervé​ Hoppenot on solving Incyte's 'single asset syndrome' [Biopharma Dive] Hoppenot admits the negative results were a setback but, a year on, defends the decision to quickly move epacadostat forward. "It was not a crazy or reckless approach," the CEO said. "If that study had been positive instead of not, that would've opened a multi-billion [opportunity] for the company."
	5.2.1 PHARMA - PARTENARIATS
Shanghai Miracogen taps Synaffix's antibody-drug conjugate tech in a deal worth up to $125M [Fierce Biotech] Attaching drugs to antibodies came about as a method to deliver cell-killing drugs to cancerous tissue while limiting their exposure to healthy tissue. Despite great interest and hundreds of clinical trials, few ADCs have reached the market.
	5.2.3 PHARMA - ÉCONOMIE
Faced by R&D setbacks and questionable gains, Gilead’s new CEO’s first move is to reach for the ax [EndPoints] In the meantime, Gilead’s bold new direction in CAR-T has gained only small advances on the revenue front as rivals look to leapfrog the pioneers on the market with less expensive, and better, alternatives.
	5.4 TRAITEMENTS - ECONOMIE
Novartis' Kisqali takes step back in heated market after NICE no vote [Fierce Pharma] NICE’s decision is a setback for Novartis as it competes for advanced breast cancer sales with Eli Lilly’s Verzenio and Pfizer’s Ibrance, the CDK 4/6 inhibitor market’s top seller by far.
Breast cancer drug combo gets initial ‘no’ for NHS in England [Cancer Research UK] Because the trial did not directly compare ribociclib and fulvestrant against the treatment patients who had previously received hormone therapy would be offered on the NHS, NICE said it couldn’t be sure that the combination was cost effective, even if more data was collected on survival.
	5.6.4 ESMO - POUMON
PROs Were Consistent with the ITT Population Across PD-L1 Subgroups in Patients with Stage III NSCLC Receiving Durvalumab or Placebo [ESMO] According to an analysis of PROs from the phase III PACIFIC trial by PD-L1 expression status, PRO outcomes by PD-L1 subgroups were generally consistent with those of the ITT population, suggesting that patients’ symptoms, functioning and global health status/quality of life (QoL) were maintained regardless of PD-L1 expression.
	5.9 AACR
AACR Annual Meeting 2019: Global Burden of Pathogen-related Cancers [Cancer Research Catalyst] Lowy explained that about one out of four cancer diagnoses are attributable to infectious agents in less developed regions, compared with one out of eight in more developed areas.
	6.3 ASSOCIATIONS/FONDATIONS
Saving Lives One CX At A Time: American Cancer Society Modernizes Website [Forbes] Since implementing the new system, more than 2.5 million new users have registered with the Society. Of those, about 360,000 have logged in using social credentials, enabling the organization to collect data from these third-party accounts, including users’ demographics, relationships, and more.
	6.4 MÉDICO-ÉCO
Treating cancer patients who smoke may cost extra $3.4 billion each year [Reuters] The added cost largely stems from additional treatments needed after continuing smokers fail to respond to first-line cancer therapies, and totals roughly $11,000 per person, the study team calculates.
	6.7 DMP, BIG DATA & APPLIS
Foundation Medicine and Flatiron Health Publish Validation of Clinico-Genomic Database as a Platform to Advance Oncology Therapeutics Development and Personalized Cancer Care [Foundation Medicine] Journal of the American Medical Association Manuscript Supports the Value of Real-World Evidence as a Novel Method to Advance Research and Discovery.
Foundation Medicine, Flatiron Health Publish Clinical Validity of Clinico-Genomics Database [Genome Web] In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Flatiron Health and Foundation Medicine confirmed the previously known clinical and genomic features of non-small cell lung cancer patients using a large clinico-genomics database, and demonstrated that this resource could also be used to glean new insights about emerging disease-linked biomarkers.
	6.9 CONTROVERSES
Exact replication: Foundation of science or game of chance? [PLoS Biology] Such replication attempts, however, have lower probability of replication than is generally appreciated. Indeed, in the common scenario of an effect just reaching statistical significance, the statistical power of the replication experiment assuming the same effect size is approximately 50%—in essence, a coin toss.