On Monday, June 16, 2014, Dr. Douglas Levine of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presented a free webinar focusing on research news that was presented at 2014’s medical meetings. In his hour-long presentation, he focused primarily on new ovarian cancer research that was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, which took … Continued
Promising new combination treatments for ovarian cancer Dr. Joyce Liu, MD, on behalf of researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), presented striking results from a Phase II trial testing the combination of the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the anti-angiogenesis drug cediranib (which blocks tumors from creating new blood … Continued
Posted by Laura Koontz on June 5, 2014 The 50th Annual Conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held May 30 – June 3 in Chicago, featured a number of promising and thought provoking studies on ovarian cancer. Below is a brief summary of the most notable studies from the meeting. In the coming weeks, we’ll also post … Continued
(June 4, 2014) In a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting last week, researchers found that the combination of olaparib and cediranib (Recentin) kept recurrent ovarian cancer from worsening for almost nine months longer than treatment with olaparib alone. For this study, 90 women with recurrent ovarian cancer that was … Continued
The Food and Drug Administration is seeking comments by June 11, 2014 on its review for Olaparib approval. Olaparib is an oral poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor that exploits DNA repair pathway deficiencies to preferentially kill cancer cells. AstraZeneca, the company that manufactures the drug, has submitted an application to the FDA for approval of … Continued
(May 16, 2014) Breastfeeding, tubal ligation – also known as having one’s “tubes tied” – and oral contraceptives may lower the risk of ovarian cancer for some women with BRCA gene mutations, according to a comprehensive analysis from a team at the University of Pennsylvania’s Basser Research Center for BRCA. The Basser Research Center for … Continued
(May 6, 2014) Tumors use numerous mechanisms to escape detection and killing by the immune system. Results from OCRF-funded research, reported May 4, 2014 in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, show that ovarian cancer cells (and others) establish a protective barrier that prevents anti-tumor immune responses by using tumor-associated blood vessels to kill immune cells. … Continued
(April 30, 2014) A positive pretreatment imaging test more than doubled the likelihood of disease control in platinum-resistant advanced ovarian cancer treated with the folate receptor-targeted drug vintafolide (trade name Vynfinit), results of a small phase II study showed. The research was reported in the April issue of Annals of Oncology. Lesions that tested positive for … Continued
With two marquee scientific conferences, the Society for Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), occurring back-to-back, the past few weeks have seen an explosion in ovarian cancer research news. This post rounds-up all that news and puts it in one place for you. All women with ovarian cancer should consider … Continued
(April 15, 2014) Prolonged (>35 days), infrequent, or anovulatory menstrual cycles was associated with as much as a two-fold increase in ovarian cancer and more than a three-fold increase in the risk of fatal ovarian cancer, according to a 50-year, prospective follow-up in 14,403 women. The findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer … Continued
(April 8, 2014) A team of researchers have found that vigorous physical activity prior to ovarian cancer diagnosis was associated with a lower risk of ovarian cancer mortality. The findings were published in Gynecologic Oncology. There is limited knowledge of the association of modifiable lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and obesity on mortality among … Continued
(April 7, 2014) A group of OCRF-funded researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have found a “fusion gene” that is present in 20% of high grade serous ovarian cancer patients. The finding, which was published in PLOS Genetics, was supported in part by OCRF grants to Martin Matzuk, MD, PhD, Shannon Hawkins, MD, PhD, and … Continued
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