Skip to content
Donate

Search Results for brca

Molecular Biomarkers to Predict PARP Inhibitor Response in Ovarian Cancer

PARP inhibitors are a promising new class of drugs for the treatment of ovarian cancer. They work by taking advantage of a cancer’s inability to repair its own DNA. Ovarian cancers from women who carry mutations in the DNA repair genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 have defective DNA repair, and are uniquely susceptible to PARP inhibitors. Mutations in other genes affecting DNA repair…

Chromatin Regulatory Mechanisms in Ovarian Cancer

The goal of this project is to understand how proteins that control the packaging and transmission of our genetic information, called transcription factors, are deregulated in ovarian cancer and to leverage this understanding to develop new therapies for this devastating disease. To achieve this goal, we have assembled a group of outstanding investigators from University of Pennsyvlania and The Wistar Institute with extensive expertise in ovarian cancer and the regulation of gene expression by transcription factors…

Ovarian Cancer Surrogates to Study Platinum Resistance

Although most patients with ovarian cancer respond well to optimal surgical debulking and platinum-based chemotherapy, the majority of them will relapse and in this setting, cure is uncommon. In order to improve the survival rates for our patients, a better understanding of chemotherapy resistance is needed. To achieve this goal, researchers need surrogates of ovarian cancer (or Avatars) that accurately reproduce the biology of those tumors in the laboratory so new drugs can be tested for efficacy…

Rational Combinations of Novel Biologic Agents for Ovarian Cancer Therapy

Improvement in the treatment ovarian cancer has reached a plateau using our current treatment arsenal. Newer agents that target ovarian cancer genetic abnormalities have shown some efficacy as single agents, but cancer cells eventually figure out ways to grow despite the drug. One strategy to improve ovarian cancer treatment is to target several abnormal biologic pathways at once…

A Bioinformatic Screen Identifies POLQ Overexpression in Ovarian Cancers

In the United States, there are approximately 23,000 new cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed per year, and over 15,000 women die from the disease. Reasons for this high lethality include the late stage at which women are diagnosed and the inherent aggressive biology of this cancer. Ovarian cancer cells are genomically unstable. They are initially sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs but become refractory to these drugs over time…

Mechanism of PARP Inhibitor in Ovarian Cancer Therapy Cancer

Cancer occurs as a result of mutations, or abnormal changes, in the genes responsible for regulating the growth of cells and keeping them healthy. Normal cells encounter numerous DNA damages induced by environmental and internal hazards. A gene named BRCA1 exists in the cells of ovarian and other tissue, where it helps repair damaged DNA, or destroy cells if DNA cannot be repaired…

Most High Risk Women Aren't Aware of Ovarian Cancer Risk

(July 28, 2014) Research published last week in Behavioral Medicine suggests that most high-risk women (>75%) do not know their risk for ovarian cancer. Women with a documented deleterious mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 are at substantially elevated risk for ovarian cancer. To understand what percentage of women with high risk family histories know their risk is elevated…

Report from the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting

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 vessels) in patients with recurrent platinum sensitive ovarian cancer…

2014 ASCO Research Round-Up

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…

ASCO News: Two New Drugs Show Promise for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

(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 either a type called high-grade serous or was related to a BRCA gene mutation…

FDA Seeking Comments on Olaparib by June 11

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 Olaparib specifically for maintenance therapy for women with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer (including fallopian tube or primary peritoneal) with germline BRCA mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test…

SGO and AACR Research Round-Up

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 genetic testing  The Society of Gynecologic Oncology now recommends that all women with ovarian…