Scientist donates £865,000 to establish charitable fund https://tinyurl.com/thkl25o Professor Nicola Curtin of Newcastle University was involved in the creation of Rubraca, a drug used in treatment of ovarian cancer. She has donated her share of the proceeds to a Community Foundation, which will help people to develop the skills, talents and confidence to overcome barriers to employment or education The fund is named “The Curtin PARP Fund” after the drug a PARP Inhibitor and as an abbreviation of  “Passionate About Realising your Potential”. Professor Curtin said, “I feel very privileged to have such a great career, I want to leave a lasting legacy that will change lives for the better. Like most scientists it's not the money that drives me, it's the intellectual challenge and the buzz I get from finding something out before anyone else knows it”.

Secondary Surgical Cytoreduction for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer https://tinyurl.com/slqtvjs Primary treatment for advanced ovarian cancer is with surgery and chemotherapy. The completeness of the initial surgical resection correlates to the overall survival.  Intuitively it has been thought that, for recurrent ovarian cancer, further surgery would be beneficial. In this clinical trial treatment for 485 patients was randomly selected, 240 for repeat surgery before chemotherapy and 245, chemotherapy alone.  No increase in survival was noted following surgery. Patients’ quality of life deteriorated in the immediate post-operative period

When evidence says no: gynaecologists’ reasons for (not) recommending ineffective ovarian cancer screening https://tinyurl.com/y4q2cyhn Clinical trials have repeatedly shown screening for ovarian cancer to be futile and potentially harmful due to the risk of over diagnosis*. Despite this, in the USA, large numbers of gynaecologists continue to recommend screening to their patients. This survey of 401 currently practising US gynaecologists showed about 60% advised screening. The criteria tested were knowledge of appropriate practice, understanding of statistics, what they thought their colleagues did and whether they thought financial conflict of interest might be a cause for other doctors' choices. The results were that screeners justified their decision, saying their colleagues supported screening and they were responding to patient pressure. Most thought wrongly that clinical evidence supported their choice. Non-screeners thought financial interest was a cause...

New Hope in the Battle Against Ovarian Cancer https://tinyurl.com/yy86894h There is commercial interest in developing personalised medical care. Ovarian cancer is a possibly lucrative opportunity. AI predictive models are using  large data sets of patient drug-treatment protocols, genetic information and historical outcomes to develop targeted therapeutics. In collaboration with the UK 100,000 Genomes Project, which is an NHS project collecting genetic material from cancer patients, a US biotechnology company; Helomics currently has data from 38,000 cases of ovarian cancer.  Helomics is looking at genetic variations and expression together with its data set of drug-response profiles to build an AI-driven predictive model of ovarian cancer. This will guide clinicians, as to which drug or drug combinations to use for ovarian cancer treatments.

Metformin plus first-line chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer: a prospective open-label pilot trial https://tinyurl.com/y4wg6hpy This small study; looking at non-diabetic patients with ovarian cancer, half of whom received metformin in addition to normal platinum based chemo, the others chemo alone; showed no progression free survival benefit.  Type two diabetic patients have a lower incidence of tumour development than healthy controls and those diabetic patients, treated with metformin, who are diagnosed with cancer, have a lower mortality. https://tinyurl.com/y3dnkc2s A recent hypothesis proposes that primary non-hereditary ovarian cancer risk factors are increased through the development of ovarian fibrosis. Metformin, which reduces fibrosis, may be protective.  https://tinyurl.com/yy4ytghy

How one bit of medical jargon fuels public confusion about cancer treatments https://tinyurl.com/y2x728q8 Most new cancer treatments haven’t been proved to help patients live longer or feel better. Instead they delay the growth of tumors, which is measured as an improvement in Progression Free Survival (PFS). In the last decade it’s become the norm in cancer trials. Patients have no idea what PFS means; it is often a poor marker for outcomes that are most important to them, such as living longer or a better quality of life during and after treatment.  Of the 42 fast-tracked cancer drugs the FDA approved in 2015-18, only 8 significantly prolonged overall survival. A recent review showed no link between a longer PFS and improved quality of life. https://tinyurl.com/y3ljfhwa Reports on trials should include cost, adverse effects, conflicts of interest and whether a drug improves overall survival. 

Ovarian cancer survivor: 4 lessons I learned from treatment https://tinyurl.com/y475pqfj “I believe staying positive is just as important as the drugs that are administered. Except for the days on which I had chemotherapy infusions, I worked the entire time. I didn’t discuss my treatment. I didn’t want the fact that I had cancer to be the first thing people focused on when they saw or talked to me. I had to be OK with letting others help me. I was taken aback by how many people stepped up.  Having others share in this experience helped me to heal mentally and emotionally. Allowing others to assist me helped them cope with the situation, too, since my diagnosis had been so sudden and shocking. Cancer treatment side effects are real. I had terrible chemo brain and exhaustion during my ovarian cancer treatment. It was incredibly frustrating, especially when I was working, because it felt like everything I did took twice as long. I’ve always been a positive person,...