Sunday, July 11, 2010
Current clinical use of biomarkers for epithelial ovarian cancer (abstract)
SUMMARY:
For more than 25 years CA125 has been the main biomarker for the management of women with EOC. Recently, novel biomarkers have become available clinically that improve upon the use of CA125 for the risk assessment and management of women with ovarian cancer.
Wine drinking and epithelial ovarian cancer risk
CONCLUSION:
Although resveratrol, abundantly found in wine, is a promising naturally occurring compound with chemopreventive properties on EOC in preclinical studies, this meta-analysis suggests the epidemiologic evidence shows no association between wine drinking and EOC risk.
Cochrane Collaboration review: Palliative surgery versus medical management for bowel obstruction in ovarian cancer - Review
CONCLUSIONS:
We found only low quality evidence comparing palliative surgery and medical management for bowel obstruction in ovarian cancer. Therefore we are unable to reach definite conclusions about the relative benefits and harms of the two forms of treatment, or to identify sub-groups of women who are likely to benefit from one treatment or the other. However, there is weak evidence in support of surgical management to prolong survival.
full free access: Somatic stem cells of the ovary and their relationship to human ovarian cancers* -- StemBook -- NCBI Bookshelf
define: 'somatic': non-inherited; also refers to all of the cells in the body except the reproductive cells (eg sperm and eggs)
"Mammalian ovaries undergo considerable remodeling during the lifetime of the organism, leading to the supposition that somatic stem cells account for or contribute to this cyclic regeneration. While much of ovarian stem cell research has been focused on germ cells, recent interest in normal somatic stem cells has been driven by their possible links to ovarian cancer stem cells. While evidence for stem cell biology with regards to granulosa cells is scant, recent work has isolated potential somatic stem cells for the theca and ovarian surface epithelium. Additionally, evidence for potential cancer initiating cells for ovarian epithelial carcinomas continues to mount......"
PET in women with high risk for breast or ovarian cancer : The Lancet Oncology
Summary
Data on the use of PET in women with genetic or familial high-risk for breast or ovarian cancer are scarce.
Open issues include the complementary use of dedicated breast-PET scanners in patients at high-risk for breast cancer, the relation between pathological characteristics of cancer diagnosed in BRCA carriers and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG)-avidity, and the predictive value of PET in patients at high-risk for ovarian cancer presenting with a pelvic mass or potential chemical markers. Therefore, the use of PET in high-risk patients with unproven malignant disease needs to be investigated in well designed clinical trials.
Once breast or ovarian cancer is diagnosed, indications for 18F-FDG-PET or PET—CT imaging are similar for high-risk patients and patients with sporadic cancer. However, PET can provide data that are beyond tumour detection per se. Future directions of PET in high-risk patients might include monitoring the response of BRCA carriers to new treatments such as poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, personalisation of treatment, and the use of new PET tracers to investigate the tissue changes related to increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
Prediction of BRCA2-association in hereditary breast carcinomas using array-CGH
Abstract
Germline mutations in BRCA1/2 increase the lifetime risk for breast and ovarian cancer dramatically. Identification of such mutations is important for optimal treatment decisions and pre-symptomatic mutation screening in family members.
Although current DNA diagnostics is able to identify many different mutations, it remains unclear, how many BRCA2-associated breast cancer cases remain unidentified as such. In addition, mutation scanning detects many unclassified variants (UV) for which the clinical relevance is uncertain. Therefore, our aim was to develop a test to identify BRCA2-association in breast tumors based on the genomic signature. A BRCA2-classifier was built using array-CGH profiles of 28 BRCA2-mutated and 28 sporadic breast tumors. The classifier was validated on an independent group of 19 BRCA2-mutated and 19 sporadic breast tumors.
Subsequently, we tested 89 breast tumors from suspected hereditary breast (and ovarian) cancer (HBOC) families, in which either no BRCA1/2 mutation or an UV (unknown variance) had been found by routine diagnostics. The classifier showed a sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 84% on the validation set of known BRCA2-mutation carriers and sporadic tumor cases. Of the 89 HBOC cases, 17 presented a BRCA2-like profile. In three of these cases additional indications for BRCA2-deficiency were found. Chromosomal aberrations that were specific for BRCA2-mutated tumors included loss on chromosome arm 13q and 14q, and gain on 17q.
Since we could separate BRCA1-like, BRCA2-like, and sporadic-like tumors, using our current BRCA2- and previous BRCA1-classifier, this method of breast tumor classification could be applied as additional test for current diagnostics to help clinicians in decision making and classifying sequence variants of unknown significance.
Oregovomab - Quest PharmaTech Announces Formation of Clinical Advisory Panel - MarketWatch
"All members of the Panel have a keen interest in innovative improvements in the area of ovarian cancer and see a great opportunity to advance the previous learning with Oregovomab in the context of combination therapies to better access the potential of the immune response to bring clinical benefit to ovarian cancer patients," commented Dr. Nicodemus. "We are excited about the potential of the approach for these three planned clinical trials."
media - research award/s - ovarian cancer biomarkers research award - ovarian cancer
"The other recipients are Joan Walker and Dr. Kathleen Moore, OU College of Medicine. With support from the grant, Walker, Moore and other OU Cancer Institute researchers will try to identify biomarkers for predicting response and prognosis and to help in screening and early detection of cancer to improve clinical care."
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