BIOLOGIE
Unravelling the circuitry that controls cancer growth and spread [Barts Cancer Institute] The study, published today in Science Signaling, set out to uncover how a protein called MET drives cancer progression.
BIOLOGIE - TECHNOS, MODÈLES
St. Jude creates resource for pediatric brain tumor research [St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital] Researchers worldwide can access orthotopic patient-derived xenograft models to speed discovery and test novel therapies for childhood brain tumors.
ÉTIOLOGIE - GÉNOME
Skin cancer: men are genetically more prone [McGill] The research led by Professor Ian Watson of McGill’s Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC), published in the journal Nature Cancer, identified three genes on the X chromosome with significant mutations.
ÉTIOLOGIE - NDMA
European regulators make recommendations drawing on lessons learnt from presence of nitrosamines in sartan medicines [EMA] The recommendations aim to clarify the roles and responsibilities of companies involved in the manufacture of medicines and to amend guidance on controlling impurities and good manufacturing practice.
TRAITEMENTS - ESSAIS
Breast cancer drug capivasertib enters major trial [Institute of Cancer Research] The CAPItello-291 trial, which will enrol around 830 patients across 20 countries, will examine the effects of the drug in pre-menopausal or post-menopausal women, and men, with an advanced form of oestrogen receptor (ER) positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negative breast cancer.
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - FUSIONS & ACQUISITIONS
Daniel O’Day snatches another I/O company, buying half of a pioneering cancer drug discoverer's biotech [EndPoints] Gilead will pay South San Francisco-based Pionyr $275 million for 49.9% ownership in the company, which is focused on targeting the innate immune cells that help tumors hide.
Gilead Grabs Option to Acquire Pionyr & Its Clinic-Bound Immunotherapies [Xconomy]
In cancer, it aims to change the makeup of the cell populations at the site of a tumor to favor myeloid immune cells that play a role in prompting an immune reaction over those that tamp it down.
Gilead, in latest cancer bet, puts $275M into immunotherapy startup Pionyr [Biopharma Dive]
Pionyr's cancer immunotherapy drugs are meant to turn immune cells within tumors against the disease itself, a technique it calls "myeloid tuning.
Gilead pens $1.5B buyout option deal for Pionyr [Fierce Biotech]
This tech can in essence help predict checkpoint inhibitor responsiveness, with two of its staffers having already worked on two such drugs: Yervoy and Keytruda.
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - CAR-T, THÉRAPIES CELLULAIRES, …
CAR T cell therapy: potential for considerable savings [DKFZ] Under these conditions, DKFZ could produce a CAR T cell product to treat a patient for less than EUR 60,000. "That would be only about a fifth of the price that the companies charge. And we can cut these costs even further by a considerable amount."
PHARMA
Sanofi wants to earn the rep for being the hare in drug R&D. But that darn tortoise keeps sticking its head out [EndPoints] Oncology, though, will remain a central focus, with plans to add 1 molecule a year through the deal channel and several more from in-house sources, for around 4-5 a year to feed a continually developing pipeline.
PHARMA - BIOTECH
Seven years after licensing BTK inhibitor from Biogen, beleaguered pennystock biotech partner concedes defeat [EndPoints] The trial had enrolled adult patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other B-cell malignancies. The safety profile was “excellent”; it just didn’t seem to have much of an effect.
Karyopharm snags new Xpovio blood cancer nod. Will sales improve? [Fierce Pharma]
Aiming to turn the conditional nod into a full one, Karyopharm will run a confirmatory phase 2/3 study dubbed XPORT-DLBCL-030. The study will combine Xpovio with the so-called R-GDP regimen that includes Roche’s Rituxan, chemotherapy gemcitabine, steroid dexamethasone and platinum chemo.
AACR
AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II: Opening Plenary Captures the Breadth of Cutting-edge Cancer Research [AACR] Presentations in the Opening Plenary Session showcased wide-ranging topics from innovative research disciplines, including the role of long noncoding RNAs in cancer, the utility of epigenetics in early detection and classification of cancer, the role of aging and the tumor microenvironment in shaping responses to cancer therapies, recent developments in cancer precision medicine aided by artificial intelligence (AI), and the utility of CRISPR-mediated gene-editing approaches to reprogram T cells for the treatment of cancer.
Use of Lipophilic Statins is Associated with Lower Mortality from Ovarian Cancer [AACR]
The researchers linked data from the Finnish national cancer registry to prescription claims on 10,062 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer between 1995 and 2015 to examine the association between pre- and post-diagnostic statin use and ovarian cancer mortality.
Young Adults With Cancer May Harbor Germline Mutations [AACR]
Stadler and colleagues studied germline mutations in 1,201 young adult patients who received a cancer diagnosis between 2015 and 2019 at MSK.
Real-world Data Shows Immunotherapy After Melanoma Surgery Yields Survival Benefit [AACR]
The database is the largest clinical cancer registry in the world, covering 72 percent of new cancer diagnoses in the United States, Moyers said. The researchers queried treatment data from cases diagnosed in 2015 and 2016, and survival data from cases diagnosed in 2015.
Personalized Cancer Vaccine Plus Atezolizumab Shows Clinical Activity in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors [AACR]
To produce the vaccine, tumor and blood samples are sequenced and tumor-specific neoantigens are identified. Following the selection of up to 20 neoantigens, the corresponding mRNA is generated, making the backbone of the vaccine, which is then encapsulated in a liposomal formulation to enable intravenous administration.
LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS - COVID19
Opinion: ‘UK cancer research could be set back years by COVID-19. We must act now’ [Cancer Research UK] Today, we announced that because of COVID-19 and the devastating impact it’s had on our income, we could be forced to cut £150 million per year from our research funding.
LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS - CONTROVERSES
Women With Cancer Awarded Billions in Baby Powder Suit [NY Times] An appellate court in Missouri upheld more than $2 billion in damages against Johnson & Johnson, saying the company knew there was asbestos in its baby powder.
