Onco Actu du 4 mars 2020

	2.11 ETIOLOGIE - ALIMENTATION
Mercury exposure tied to skin cancer risk [Reuters] While people should be aware of the potential skin cancer risk associated with mercury in fish, it’s not the main cause of these malignancies and the exact skin cancer risk associated with mercury exposure isn’t yet clear, Farberg, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
	2.13 ETIOLOGIE - NDMA
Update on nitrosamines in EU medicines [EMA] In line with previous advice, patients should continue taking their metformin medicines as usual. The risk from not having adequate diabetes treatment far outweighs possible risks from low levels of nitrosamines.
	3.1.1 PRÉVENTION - TABAC - E-CIGS
False fears preventing smokers from using e-cigarettes to quit [Public Health England] Over half of smokers believe nicotine vaping products are equally or more harmful than smoking despite US vaping deaths being caused by substances banned in UK.
'False fears' about vaping stopping smokers using e-cigs: UK report [Reuters] The report, the sixth by PHE on this issue, is likely to deepen divisions in opinion about the potential risks of e-cigarettes.
	4.3 DÉP., DIAG. & PRONO. - INDUSTRIELS
Happy alone Qiagen changes course after Thermo Fisher offers to buy it in $11.5B deal [EndPoints] Qiagen, which generated 2019 revenue of more than $1.5 billion, has built a suite of genomic analytic products based on technology engineered to extract, isolate and purify DNA, RNA and proteins from a wide range of biological samples.
FDA grants Breakthrough Device Designation for Roche's Elecsys GALAD score to support earlier diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma [Roche] This algorithmic score combines gender and age with the biomarker results of the Elecsys AFP, AFP-L3 and PIVKA-II and is intended to aid diagnosis of early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
	5.1 TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Understanding the off-target effects of cancer drugs – and how they could lead us to new forms of treatment [Institute of Cancer Research] It’s also the first time that PARP inhibitors have been shown to have such potent off-target effects at really low drug concentrations – below the often critical threshold concentration of one micromolar which can be readily achieved in patients.
Starve a tumor, feed a cell: How cancers can resist drugs [UCI] This new research revealed that macropinocytosis makes a previously unappreciated contribution to breast cancer drug-resistance. Edinger and Jayashankar also demonstrated that the same process could thwart treatments for pancreas and prostate cancer.
Tweaking the DNA of myeloid cells curbs cancer spread [Nature] Blood cells called myeloid cells can facilitate metastasis — the spread of a tumour to distant organs. Taming these cells with drugs that alter the chemical structure of their DNA limits metastasis in mice.
Experimental Drug May Prevent Chemotherapy Drug from Damaging the Heart [Albert Einstein College of Medicine] A new study involving zebrafish and mice suggests that the experimental drug BAI1 can prevent doxorubicin from damaging the heart without lessening its anti-cancer properties. The study was published online in the journal Nature Cancer.
	5.12.5.1 IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - BIOTECH
Failure-prone Unum cuts jobs, loses scientific chief, and changes focus yet again [EndPoints] Cell therapies under the platform were engineered to arm a patient’s T cells with the arsenal to launch a double attack on cancer cells. First, the cells are designed to express ACTR — a chimeric protein made out of components from T cells and natural killer cells — and then are combined with the tumor-targeting ability of co-administered antibodies. The platform has seen failure after failure.
	5.17 TRAITEMENTS - RADIOTHÉRAPIE
Radiation therapy for colon cancer works better when specific protein blocked [WUSTL] Using techniques to block the IDO1 gene, as well as the drug epacadostat to block the protein’s activity, made radiation more effective in slowing tumor growth. Combining the strategies contributed to tumor shrinkage in 40% of the tumors the researchers studied.
	5.2.1 PHARMA - PARTENARIATS
Voluntis and Bristol-Myers Squibb to Co-Develop Digital Therapeutics For Oncology [BMS] The goal is that the digital therapeutic, once researched and developed, would provide patients access to a mobile app that would support treatment and track symptoms.
	5.2.6 PHARMA - BIOTECH
Boasting new discoveries from Xtandi, Erleada inventors, ORIC pitches $86M IPO on cancer drugs targeted at resistance [EndPoints] After Sawyers’ lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering showed that tumor cells switch to glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling to bypass anti-androgen therapy, they began putting the theory to the test at ORIC.
	5.3 TRAITEMENTS - FDA, EMA,...
EMA Started a Review of Trabectedin [ESMO] The review is initiated after an interim analysis of the results from the OVC-3006 study conducted in patients with ovarian cancer.
	5.3.4 TRAITEMENTS - AMM (FDA, EMA,...)
Sanofi Wins FDA Nod for Combo Therapy in Multiple Myeloma [Xconomy] Paris-based Sanofi set the list price at $650 per 100 mg vial and $3,250 per 500 mg vial, or about $5,200 per infusion for a typical US patient. The company says it expects the treatment to be available to patients in the US “shortly.”
FDA approves Sarclisa® (isatuximab-irfc) for patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma [Sanofi] FDA approval based on data from the only randomized Phase 3 trial (ICARIA-MM) to evaluate an anti-CD38 in combination with pom-dex that has presented results to date.
	5.4 TRAITEMENTS - ECONOMIE
Merck CEO Frazier finds fault in new studies suggesting pharma profits are too high [Fierce Pharma] Perhaps the most damning of the studies compares the profits of the 35 biggest pharmaceutical companies to the S&P 500 as a whole.
New estimate puts cost to develop a new drug at $1B, adding to long-running debate [Biopharma Dive] The analysis, which accounts for projects that failed in clinical development, confirms similar numbers that have been published in the past, although it rebuts a more recent finding putting the costs as high as nearly $3 billion, which used confidential data provided by drugmakers.
	6.1 OBSERVATION
Cancer survival rates improve for young adults [EurekAlert!] Researchers here found that, among 282,969 five-year young adult cancer survivors, five-year mortality (from five through ten years after diagnosis) from all causes decreased from 8.3% among those diagnosed in 1975-1984 to 5.4% among those diagnosed in 2005-2011.
	6.9 CONTROVERSES
Precision medicine: course correction urgently needed [STAT] An undeclared civil war is breaking out in biomedicine. On one side is precision medicine, with its emphasis on tailoring treatments to ever-narrower groups of patients. On the other side is population health, which emphasizes predominantly preventive interventions that have broad applications across populations.