The origins of oncomice: a history of the first transgenic mice genetically engineered to develop cancer

Past medical conditions and K-ras mutations in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a hypothesis-generating study

BACKGROUND

In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) evidence on the etiopathogenic role of past medical conditions in the occurrence and persistence of K-ras mutations is scant.

METHODS

Incident cases of PDA were interviewed face-to-face about past medical history and other factors. Logistic regression was used to compare PDA cases (n = 120) with wild-type and mutated K-ras tumors (case-case study).

RESULTS

Patients with wild-type K-ras tumors were more likely to have a prior diagnosis of pancreatitis (Odds ratio [OR] = 6.11, p = 0.041). Diabetes mellitus (DM) was non-significantly more common among cases with a K-ras wild-type tumor, and the OR for DM of >6 years of duration was 4.54 (p = 0.39). Patients with wild-type K-ras were significantly more likely to have had a surgically treated peptic ulcer (OR = 9.03, p = 0.027). The probability of having a K-ras wild-type tumor increased with the number of medical conditions (p for trend = 0.012); the corresponding OR for two or more medical conditions was 4.46 (95% CI: 1.37-14.50).

CONCLUSIONS

Results raise the hypothesis that pancreatitis and possibly peptic ulcer might influence pancreatic carcinogenesis through pathways independent of K-ras mutation, perhaps related to growth factors or mediators of the inflammatory response. Large unselected studies should be conducted to refute or replicate our findings.

"It is the antigen(s), stupid" and other lessons from over a decade of vaccitherapy of human cancer

The lessons are: (a) human cancers certainly respond to immunological manipulations. Efforts at human cancer immunotherapy are therefore worthwhile. (b) Prophylaxis is very different from therapy of pre-existing disease, and hence much enthusiasm should not be derived from successful prophylaxis studies. Even in case of infectious agents against which robust prophylaxis is routinely achieved, therapy is nearly impossible once the disease has established. (c) Studies with appropriate cancer models of mice and rats are useful. The notion that it is easy to cure cancers in mice is generally advanced the most confidently by those who have never cured a mouse of cancer by immunotherapy. (d) With a nod to James Carville, it is the antigen(s), stupid! We still do not know the identity of protective tumor antigens. If any lesson can be drawn at all, it may well be that cancer immunotherapy must move away from the one-shoe-fits-all therapeutic models of chemotherapy and must move to individualized approaches. (e) All targets are equal, but some are more equal than others. The key is specificity for cancer. That does not necessarily mean specificity for cancer cells. (f) Vaccitherapy must be attempted preferably in the minimal residual disease setting, even though this is certain to be time-taking and expensive. In the setting of bulky disease, vaccitherapy must be combined with blockade of inhibitory signals, or depletion of down-regulatory T cells. Inhibition of effector level suppression of immune response is a key. Vaccitherapy alone or immuno-modulation alone is unlikely to succeed in therapy of bulky metastatic disease.

Une souris verte... Organismes transgéniques, spéculations humanimales et autres bricolages du vivant

Dans cet article, je m’intéresse à l’existence (souvent invisible, parfois oubliée et pourtant décisive) d’une compagnie animalière en plein essor, celle des souris transgéniques cancéreuses. Chaque semaine « sortent » en effet, des laboratoires américains Charles River, des milliers de souriceaux aux génomes modifiés garantissant les tumeurs à venir. Commandés en ligne, livrables à travers le globe, souvent transportés via UPS ou Purolator, à destination d’unités de recherche biomédicale de plus en plus nombreuses, ces animaux-cobayes sont à la fois vivants et déjà morts. Programmés pour mourir, leur génotypie est le fruit d’une manipulation immuno-oncologique serrée. En revenant sur les modalités vitales de ces souris (nutrition, reproduction, expression), je propose une série de réflexions portant non plus seulement sur la seule identité du vivant (humain, animal, hybridé), mais sur les capacités (recombinées, transpécifiques, émergentes) dont ces vivants font montre lors de mises en relation à la fois inédites et normalisées. Je problématise ainsi plusieurs des registres animant notre modernité (frontière des appartenances spécifiées, circulations de qualités affectives par-delà les corps individualisés ou encore, déferlements de puissances anthropocéniques). Ce faisant, j’interroge : 1) le détournement des intelligences autres qu’humaines et ses produits ; 2) les qualités ontologiques et épistémologiques d’une animalité à la fois autre et même ; 3) l’apparition de nouvelles configurations écologiques, où ces existences post-naturelles se font tour à tour programmables et incommensurables, interchangeables et particulières, et pourtant toujours enceintes de ce(ux) qui nous déborde(nt) . . .