Michele Robinson came up with the idea for her cancer support group, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” during her first chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer in November 2004. “I was looking around the room and that song popped into my head. It was true—even though you do experience cancer yourself, no one knows what you feel … Continued
New research published in Human Reproduction Update provides additional evidence that in vitro fertilization (IVF) does not increase women’s risk for ovarian, endometrial, and cervical cancer. Researchers have wondered if fertility treatments like IVF, which require the use of ovulation-stimulating drugs and the puncturing of the ovaries to retrieve eggs, increased women’s risk of gynecologic cancers. Some … Continued
In a report issued this month, the American Cancer Society released new statistics on cancer in African Americans. Overall, cancer death rates among both African American men and women have declined, yet African Americans still have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any ethnic group for cancer. However, for ovarian cancer, both incidence … Continued
A study of the medical records of more than 67,000 women who underwent fertility treatment found that fertility treatments did not effect the risk of breast or uterine cancer, and may slightly increase the risk of ovarian cancer. Researchers are not sure if the risk of ovarian cancer was due to chance or the drugs/IVF … Continued
A new study published in Endocrine-Related Cancer which used data from the OCRF-funded Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium, evaluated the association between BMI and ovarian cancer risk, and also examined the association by histological subtype, menopausal status, and post-menopausal hormone (HRT) use. Results showed that while obesity does appear to increase risk of less common types of ovarian … Continued
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the nation’s preeminent hospitals for cancer care. Located in Houston, Texas, MD Anderson’s Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program was created in 1996 as a critical step toward the goal of eradicating ovarian cancer. The program was the nation’s first formal, comprehensive ovarian cancer research … Continued
A new report from the American Cancer Society estimates cancer incidence and mortality rates for African Americans. In the case of ovarian cancer, both incidence and mortality are lower for African American women than for white women. Ovarian cancer incidence for African American women is 74 percent of the rate for white women; death rates … Continued
A new study of mice with prostate cancer indicated that stress can hinder the effectiveness of anti-cancer therapies. In this mouse model, the use of beta-blockers did prevent stress from accelerating cancer growth. The pathway will now be tested in human prostate cells. Read an article about the study here and the journal article here. … Continued
In the journal Clinical Cancer Research, a group of researchers, including current and past OCRF grantees Anil Sood and Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, evaluated the prognostic value of fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) protein expression in patients with advanced-stage, high-grade serous ovarian cancer. They found that FGFR4 is a prognostic marker for the disease. Furthermore, silencing FGFR4 significantly … Continued
A study of 425 Stage III and IV ovarian cancer patients had either primary debulking surgery or interval debulking surgery. Interval debulking surgery did not appear to increase the risk of initial platinum resistance, but did appear to increase the risk of platinum resistance in the recurrent setting. See the abstract here
In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from Curtin University in Australia found that extended breastfeeding significantly reduces the risk of ovarian cancer in women. The study examined 493 Chinese women who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The study found that women who breastfed for more than 13 months were … Continued
A new study indicates a direct link between higher blood calcium levels and presence of ovarian cancer. Specifically, “women who were later diagnosed with ovarian cancer and women who later died of ovarian cancer had higher levels of calcium in blood than women who did not before their cancer diagnosis.” Read an article about the … Continued
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