Search Results for brca

Meet Mindy Gray: Wife, Mother, Sister, Philanthropist, and OCRF Board Member

Mindy's sister, Faith with son, Logan 12/14/2012 | Mindy Gray was devastated by the passing of her beloved older sister, Faith Basser. But she turned loss into legacy and hurt into hope this year when she and her husband Jon founded the Basser Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania in honor of her sister who succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 44…

Supreme Court to Hear Gene Patent Case

The Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments in a case seeking to invalidate the patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The patent-holder, Myriad Laboratories, owns patents on the genetic mutations themselves. The Alliance has joined the suit, led by the ACLU…

Study Reveals New Mechanism of Action for PARP Inhibitors

11/14/2012 Researchers at the National Cancer Institute have discovered a new way in which PARP inhibitors block cancer cell growth.  They also discovered that three experimental PARP inhibitors vary widely in their ability to kill cancer cells.  PARP inhibitors are a class of drugs that have shown promising results against ovarian cancer in women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations…

Q&A with Melinda Yates, Ph.D.

Dr. Melinda Yates is a 2012 Ann Schreiber Program of Excellence Grantee. In this interview with OCRF's Sarah DeFeo, Dr. Yates discusses her research and what it means to receive a grant from OCRF…

Dr. Kathryn Terry on the Genetics of Ovarian Cancer.

Kathryn Terry, ScD is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology att he Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. She received an OCRF Liz Tilberis award in both 2006 and 2009. She was interviewed by OCRF's Director of Grants, Sarah DeFeo…

USPSTF Recommends Against Routine Screening For Ovarian Cancer

09/11/2012 Confirming the position taken in draft guidelines released in April, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that women do not routinely get screened for ovarian cancer if they are not at high risk for the disease. The panel found that such screening can put women at increased risk of unnecessary harm, such as major surgery…

Draft USPSTF Statement Recommends Against Ovarian Cancer Screening

04/11/2012   In a draft statement released April 11, 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) again stated that screening average-risk women for ovarian cancer does more harm than good. The USPSTF, an independent volunteer panel of non-government experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, is composed of primary care providers (such as internists, pediatricians, family physicians…

OCRF Invited to Participate in Important New National Research Initiative

03/06/2012   The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent volunteer panel of non-government experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, is composed of primary care providers (such as internists, pediatricians, family physicians, gynecologists/obstetricians, and nurses). This prestigious group conducts rigorous scientific reviews of a broad range of clinical preventive health care services (such as screening, counseling, and use of preventive medications) to assess the strength of evidence of the risks and benefits of treatments and diagnostic tests…

Partner Member Profile: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered

In the late 1990s, Sue Friedman was diagnosed with breast cancer. She learned that she carried a mutation in the BRCA gene that made her more likely to develop both breast and ovarian cancers. Sue felt that none of the existing breast and ovarian cancer groups met the needs of women at high risk for both diseases: breast cancer survivors like Sue felt out-of-place in ovarian cancer groups…

Ovarian Cancer: A Theme Based Approach Toward Identification of Novel Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets

The goal of this project is to characterize the genetic and molecular mechanisms that regulate epithelial ovarian cancer growth and progression and to identify biological molecules that, by modulating such processes, may have diagnostic and therapeutic significance. The project is three-pronged: One area will explore whether women who have the BRCA1 mutation, which is linked to hereditary ovarian cancer…