Onco Actu du 19 avril 2019

	1. BIOLOGIE
Science Surgery: ‘How do tumours ‘know’ where to spread?’ [Cancer Research UK] “It makes it look like the cancer knows what it’s doing,” says Machesky. “But really we think that cancer cells are being randomly shed from the tumour – the cells come off and they get distributed around the body – and the majority of them die.”
Gene editing uncovers potential drug targets for aggressive brain tumours [Cancer Research UK] Using CRISPR, the team put the glioblastoma stem cells through ‘cell fitness screens’. The technique uses a pair of molecular ‘scissors’, which precisely snip and switch off target genes in the glioblastoma stem cells one by one, to see which helped the stem cells to survive and grow.
	2.6 ETIOLOGIE - ENVIRONNEMENT
Will glyphosate residue in beer and wine raise your cancer risk? If you drink 8 gallons a day [Genetic Literacy Project] Those levels of alcohol consumption would give you a five times greater risk of head, neck and oesophageal cancer (and an increased risk of other cancers). The risk of glyphosate causing cancer is nowhere near these levels. The irony is palpable.
	2.7 ETIOLOGIE - OBÉSITÉ
A new genetic test can offer clues — and only clues — to a person’s risk of obesity [STAT] Built by a team of Harvard-affiliated researchers, the score looks to be more powerful than any past genetic test for obesity. But there’s no commercial version of it yet. And it remains to be seen whether it’ll be powerful enough to be useful in the clinic, as a way to inform adults why they’re heavy or to identify high-risk children and intervene before they become obese.
New genetic ‘risk score’ could predict obesity odds [Science] But scientists warn the risk score comes with risks of its own.
This Genetic Mutation Makes People Feel Full — All the Time [NY Times] Together, the studies confirm a truth that researchers wish more people understood. There are biological reasons that some struggle mightily with their weight and others do not, and the biological impacts often are seen on appetite, not metabolism.
Calculating genetic risk for obesity [Broad Institute] “DNA is not destiny. We know that a healthy lifestyle can offset a genetic predisposition, although those with a high genetic risk likely have to work much harder to maintain a normal weight. Prevention strategies could be especially impactful early in life for these individuals.”
	3. PRÉVENTION
E.P.A. Moves to ‘Close the Door’ on Asbestos. Consumer Groups Say Loopholes Remain. [NY Times] The final Environmental Protection Agency rule goes somewhat further than the initial version the agency had proposed, but public health advocates said it still fell short of the protections needed.
	3.1 PRÉVENTION - TABAC
Kentucky’s Senator McConnell Supports Bill to Raise Minimum Age to Buy Tobacco to 21 [NY Times] Mr. McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader whose home state, Kentucky, is the nation’s second-largest tobacco producer, said he was motivated by the increasing rate of vaping among teenagers and young adults.
	4.7 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - COL DE L'UTÉRUS
Cervical Cancer is More Aggressive when Human Papilloma Virus is Not Detected [Barcelona Institute for Global Health] In this study, the team led by ISGlobal researcher and pathologist Jaume Ordi, analysed tumours from 214 women diagnosed with cervical cancer and admitted to the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona between 2012 and 2015, and followed-up for five years. Using a highly sensitive molecular amplification test, they found that 10% of tumours analysed were negative for VPH DNA.
	5.1 TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Researchers pinpoint tumor-related protein, slow progression of cancers [University of Nebraska] Published April 17 in the journal Nature, the study suggests that targeting FATP2 in the immune-suppressing cells could block the resulting buildup of lipids and mitigate tumor progression without significant side effects, the team said.
	5.12.5 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - PHARMA
Roche throws in the towel on Tecentriq bladder, myeloma trials [Fierce Pharma] Roche’s Tecentriq has scored some important victories lately, including a pair of first-in-class approvals. But in other types of cancer, the Swiss drugmaker has decided to pull the plug. In a Wednesday update to its pharma pipeline, Roche listed two phase 1 Tecentriq studies—one in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and one in multiple myeloma—that it had cast aside.
Gilead-partnered Vienna-based immunotherapy company Hookipa makes Nasdaq debut with downsized $84M IPO [EndPoints] Hookipa’s tech platform is based on engineering arenaviruses to carry and deliver disease-specific proteins (antigens) directly into patients to dendritic cells.
	5.2 PHARMA
It’s Tough to Find Drugs to Bind to RNA: Arrakis Nabs $75M to Help [Xconomy] Gilman is well aware that other companies are working on RNA-targeting drugs. But he says that while some of those companies are focusing on particular diseases, Arrakis could potentially address multiple therapeutic areas.
Gilman buckles in as Arrakis raises $75M, gains momentum [Fierce Biotech] “Three are cancer targets. One is a bit of an oldie but a goodie oncogene—that's MEK—and another is a transcription factor that has long been associated with cancer,” Gilman said. “The third is a synthetic lethal gene.”
Arrakis Therapeutics Announces $75 Million Series B Financing To Advance a New Class of Small-Molecule Medicines Targeting RNA [Arrakis] Having established first-in-industry RNA-targeted Small Molecule (rSM) platform, Arrakis will focus pipeline in oncology and genetically validated targets in other diseases.
A biotech startup’s lofty goal: Kill cancer with pills that target RNA instead of proteins [STAT] A lot more work needs to get done before Arrakis has an experimental medicine ready to test in patients. Those promising RNA compounds that look like they might work against cancer targets still need to be refined and made into oral drugs — a process that could take another 18 months.
	5.4 TRAITEMENTS - ECONOMIE
Time to give up on biosims, experts say. Price regulations would deliver more savings [Fierce Pharma] Bach said he and his fellow authors suggest an "independent body, not the government" set prices for biologics after they lose exclusivity. Prices should be "built up from cost-reporting from the biologic manufacturers and set at a level where the built-in costs ... are included as is an attractive profit," Bach added.
Drugmakers Reveal List Prices Online After Pressure From Trump [Bloomberg] The world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies are revealing prices of their prescription drugs on websites for the first time in a bid to stave off pressure from the Trump administration to make even more public disclosures.
	5.6 ESMO
Celyad to Present Update on allogeneic and autologous NKG2D-based CAR-T Candidates in Refractory mCRC at ESMO 21st World GI Congress [Celyad] Clinical data from the SHRINK and alloSHRINK Phase 1 trials, evaluating the safety of NKG2D-based autologous and allogeneic CAR-T candidates, CYAD-01 and CYAD-101, respectively, will be presented.
	6.11 PATIENTS
Many young cancer patients regret initial treatment decisions [Reuters] Researchers surveyed 203 cancer patients, ages 15 to 29, within six weeks of their diagnosis to ask about their decision-making preferences and experiences. They checked back with these young patients again after four months and one year to see if their feelings about treatment decisions changed over time.
	6.12 ETHIQUE
Commercial interests, transparency, and independence: a call for submissions [BMJ] Today we announce plans for a stream of BMJ content to revisit these concerns and ask you to join us. A key aim is to identify and respond to commercial influences on health and healthcare, to understand under what circumstances involvement with industry is truly necessary.
	6.7.1 IA/BIOINFORMATIQUE
Can science writing be automated? [MIT] A neural network can read scientific papers and render a plain-English summary.
Genomenon Partners With Google To Make Genomic Data Available On Google Cloud Platform [Genomenon] Genomenon’s Cited Variants Reference (CVR) data will be a public dataset available in BigQuery, Google Cloud’s big data and machine learning data warehouse, for use in genomic applications. The Mastermind Genomic Search Engine reads the titles and abstracts of over 30 million scientific medical papers published in PubMed.
Farewell to “Watson For Drug Discovery” [In The Pipeline] IBM specifically sold the system as being ready to use for target identification, pathway elucidation, prediction of gene and protein function and regulation, drug repurposing, and so on. And it just wasn’t ready for those challenges, especially as early as they were announcing that they were.
National experts chart roadmap for AI in medical imaging [NIH] The report describes innovations that would help to produce more publicly available, validated and reusable data sets against which to evaluate new algorithms and techniques, noting that to be useful for machine learning these data sets require methods to rapidly create labeled or annotated imaging data.
	6.9 CONTROVERSES
‘I Want What My Male Colleague Has, and That Will Cost a Few Million Dollars’ [NY Times] Women at the Salk Institute say they faced a culture of marginalization and hostility. The numbers from other elite scientific institutions suggest they’re not alone.
‘Friendly’ reviewers rate grant applications more highly [Nature] The study examined more than 38,000 reviews from nearly 13,000 Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant applications by about 27,000 peer reviewers from all disciplines between 2006 and 2016. The authors found that reviewers nominated by applicants were more likely to give these applicants higher evaluation scores than referees chosen by the SNSF.