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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Optimal first-line treatment in ovarian cancer



Optimal first-line treatment in ovarian cancer

OhioLINK ETD: Integration of family health history in clinical guidelines for breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer



OhioLINK ETD:

New insights into ovarian cancer pathology



New insights into ovarian cancer pathology


Table of Contents — Educational Book of the 37th ESMO Congress Vienna, Austria 28 September – 2 October 2012



Table of Contents — September 2012, 23 (suppl 10)

  • Educational Book of the 37th ESMO Congress Vienna, Austria 28 September – 2 October 2012
Volume 23 suppl 10 September 2012

Table of Contents — Educational Book of the 37th ESMO Congress Vienna, Austria 28 September – 2 October 2012



Table of Contents — September 2012, 23 (suppl 10)

  • Educational Book of the 37th ESMO Congress Vienna, Austria 28 September – 2 October 2012
Volume 23 suppl 10 September 2012

migrated to youtube: Survivors' Debate: The Past Decade in Ovarian Cancer Novi/Toronto - excerpts



Survivors' Debate: The Past Decade in Ovarian Cancer Novi/Toronto - excerpts

YouTube - Survivors' Debate: The Past Decade in Ovarian Cancer



YouTube 


Survivors' Debate: The Past Decade in Ovarian Cancer

One debate - two conferences: Novi, MI & Toronto, Canada:
Survivors' Debate: The Past Decade in Ovarian Cancer Distributed by Tubemogul.

Why Do Academic Medical Centers Do Poorly on Quality Report Cards?




"...Academic medical center hospitals often save the lives of patients with complicated conditions who benefit from cutting edge treatments supported by basic science research.  However, it is revealing that the community Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland made the Joint Commission’s list of  “top performers” and the famed Johns Hopkins did not do as well on the quality scoring report card.
The Holy Cross vice president of quality and care management cites three factors for the hospital’s excellent quality results: intensive review of patients’ charts, the electronic medical record system, and the leadership focus on quality.
When it comes to choosing a hospital, patients should take into account quality report cards as well as reputation."


Why Do Academic Medical Centers Do Poorly on Quality Report Cards?:

By KENT BOTTLES, MD

In September 2012, the Joint Commission recognized 620 hospitals (about 18% of the total number of accredited American hospitals) as “top performers,” but many were surprised when some of the biggest names in academic medical centers failed to make the cut.  Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Cleveland Clinic (perennial winners in the US News & World Report best hospital competition) did not qualify when the Joint Commission based their ranking not on reputation but on specific actions that “add up to millions of opportunities ‘to provide the right care to the patients at American hospitals.’”

Can the Source of Funding for Medical Research Affect the Results?



Can the Source of Funding for Medical Research Affect the Results?:

Many clinical research studies are funded by pharmaceutical companies and there is a general perception that such industry-based funding could potentially skew the results in favor of a new medication or device. The rationale underlying this perception regarding the influence of industry funding is fairly straightforward. Pharmaceutical companies or device manufacturers need to increase the sales of newly developed drugs or devices in order to generate adequate profits. It would be in their best interest to support research that favors their corporate goals. Even though this rationale makes intuitive sense, it does not necessarily prove that industry-funding does influence the results of trials. However, there is also data to support the fact that the funding source does seem to correlate with the outcomes of clinical trials.
One such study was conducted by Paul Ridker and Jose Torres and published in 2006 in JAMA ( Journal of the American Medical Association ). Ridker and Torres analyzed randomized cardiovascular trials published in leading, peer-reviewed medical journals ( JAMA, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine ) during the five year period of 2000-2005 in which one treatment strategy was directly compared to a competing treatment. They found that 67.2% of studies funded exclusively by for-profit organizations favored the newer treatment, whereas only 49.0% of studies funded by non-profit organizations (such as non-profit foundations and state or federal government agencies) showed results in favor of the newer treatment. This contrast was even more pronounced for pharmaceutical drugs, where 65.5% of the industry sponsored studies showed benefits of the newer treatment, while only 39.5% of non-profit funded studies favored the new treatment.
[More]

Some deadly breast cancers share genetic features with ovarian tumors | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis



Some deadly breast cancers share genetic features with ovarian tumors | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

"The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers.......

repost - open access link: Rethinking Ovarian Cancer: Recommendations for Improving Outcomes (multinational authors)



Rethinking Ovarian Cancer: Recommendations for Improving Outcomes

Saturday, September 22, 2012

(provisional) programme: FIGO 2012 Oct 7-12th



programme.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Select a test or treatment - imaging (eg. CT, Biopsy....)



Select a test or treatment

Radiology information - Abdomen (CT......)



Abdomen
 Abdomen (colon, intestines, kidneys, liver, pancreas, pelvis, stomach)

Select from the following list:

Diagnostic Radiology

Interventional Radiology (IR)

Nuclear Medicine

Radiation Therapy

There Is More to Life Than Death — NEJM



There Is More to Life Than Death — NEJM

"....Basing decisions on the outcome of death ignores vital dimensions of life that are not easily quantified. There are real complexities and uncertainties that we all, patients and physicians alike, confront in weighing risk and benefit. Wrestling with these uncertainties requires nuanced and individualized judgment. It is neither ignorant nor irrational to question the wisdom of expert recommendations that are sweeping and generic. There is more to life than death."

Seth's Blog: Curiosity was framed



Curiosity was framed:

Avoid it at your peril. The cat's not even sick. (HT to C. J. Cherryh)
If you don't know how it works, find out.
If you're not sure if it will work, try it. If it doesn't make sense, play with it until it does.
If it's not broken, break it.
If it might not be true, find out.
And most of all, if someone says it is none of your business, prove them wrong.

Noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma: a clinicopathologic study of 18 cases.



Noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma: a clinicopathologic study of 18 cases.:

Related Articles

Hum Pathol. 2012 Aug 30;

Abstract
Noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma consists of slender tufts of urothelial carcinoma lacking fibrovascular cores analogous to ovarian papillary serous tumors of borderline malignancy. Eighteen noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma cases were identified from the Pathology Department of The Johns Hopkins Hospital (2000-2011). Patients lacked history of invasive urothelial carcinoma. Two patterns of noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma were identified: (1) as a variant of noninvasive high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma (high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma/micropapillary urothelial carcinoma) (n = 13 cases) and (2) as a variant of urothelial carcinoma in situ (carcinoma in situ/micropapillary urothelial carcinoma) (n = 5 cases with 2 of these patients also having high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma/micropapillary urothelial carcinoma). Of 18 patients, 16 (88%) were male with a mean age of 71.8 years (range, 54-87 years). Of the 12 patients initially treated with surveillance, Bacillus-Calmette Guérin, or intravesical chemotherapy, 4 did not recur and were without evidence of disease at 6, 21, 24, and 39 months. Four patients experienced recurrences with 3 of them without evidence of disease at 36, 52, and 72 months and with the fourth whose last follow-up was at 84 months when recurrence occurred. One patient is alive at 11 months with disease, and 1 died of other causes at 1 month. Two patients progressed to pT2 and pT3 disease at 5 and 21 months, respectively. It is critical to differentiate and clearly specify in pathology reports whether micropapillary urothelial carcinoma is invasive or noninvasive because invasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma is an aggressive disease with a high degree of understaging, whereas some cases of noninvasive micropapillary urothelial carcinoma are not necessarily associated with an adverse outcome.

PMID: 22939957 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

New insights into the pathogenesis of ovarian carcinoma: time to rethink ovarian cancer screening.



New insights into the pathogenesis of ovarian carcinoma: time to rethink ovarian cancer screening.:


Abstract
Recent discoveries about the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer have suggested that it can no longer be thought of as a single entity, but that the histologically defined ovarian cancer subtypes are different diseases, with different precursor lesions and distinct biomarker expression profiles. Most serous carcinomas probably arise from the fallopian tube. Clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas are associated with endometriosis and likely originate from ectopic endometrium. The focus of large ovarian cancer screening trials has been detection of macroscopic ovarian abnormalities by ultrasonography and detection of serum biomarkers associated with the most common (serous) subtype of ovarian cancer. The only completed and phase three randomized controlled trial failed to achieve the objective of reducing ovarian cancer mortality and was not able to demonstrate a stage migration effect of the screening. Future screening strategies have to incorporate our growing understanding of each subtype of pelvic (ovarian or fallopian tube) cancer, its organ of origin, and disease-specific biomarkers. We review how our current understanding of pathogenesis should prompt a reexamination of data from ovarian cancer screening studies and discuss potential designs for future screening strategies.

PMID: 22996112 [PubMed - in process]

Clonal evolution of high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma from primary to recurrent disease.



Clonal evolution of high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma from primary to recurrent disease.:

J Pathol. 2012 Sep 21;

Abstract
High-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) is the most common and fatal form of ovarian cancer. While most tumors are highly sensitive to cytoreductive surgery and platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy, the majority of patients experience recurrence of treatment-resistant tumors. The clonal origin and mutational adaptations associated with recurrent disease are poorly understood. We performed whole exome sequencing on tumor cells harvested from ascites at three time points (primary, first recurrence and second recurrence) for three HGSC patients receiving standard treatment. Somatic point mutations and small insertions and deletions were identified by comparison to constitutional DNA. The clonal structure and evolution of tumors were inferred from patterns of mutant allele frequencies. TP53 mutations were predominant in all patients at all time points, consistent with the known founder role of this gene. Tumors from all three patients also harbored mutations associated with cell cycle checkpoint function and Golgi vesicle trafficking. There was convergence of germline and somatic variants within the DNA repair, ECM, cell cycle control and Golgi vesicle pathways. The vast majority of somatic variants found in recurrent tumors were present in primary tumors. Our findings highlight both known and novel pathways that are commonly mutated in HGSC. Moreover, they provide the first evidence at single nucleotide resolution that recurrent HGSC arises from multiple clones present in the primary tumor with negligible accumulation of new mutations during standard treatment.
PMID: 22996961 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Effect of radical cytoreductive surgery on omission and delay of chemotherapy for advanced-stage ovarian cancer.



Effect of radical cytoreductive surgery on omission and delay of chemotherapy for advanced-stage ovarian cancer.:


Obstet Gynecol. 2012 Oct;120(4):871-81

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: : Cytoreductive surgery is associated with extensive morbidity and may delay chemotherapy. We examined the associations among cytoreduction, perioperative complications, and delay or omission of chemotherapy.
METHODS: : Women aged 65 years or older with stage III-IV ovarian cancer who were treated with surgery from 1991-2005 and recorded in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database were examined. We estimated the influence of extended cytoreduction as well as the occurrence of major perioperative complications on receipt and timing of chemotherapy and survival.
RESULTS: : Among 3,991 patients, 479 (12%) failed to receive chemotherapy. Of those treated with chemotherapy, 2,527 (72%) initiated treatment within 6 weeks of surgery, 838 (24%) within 6-12 weeks, and 147 (4%) more than 12 weeks after surgery. In a multivariable model, older patients, those with comorbidities, mucinous tumors, and stage IV neoplasms were more likely not to receive chemotherapy (P<.05). Extended cytoreduction and the occurrence of postoperative complications were not associated with omission of chemotherapy but were associated with chemotherapy delay. For every 14 patients who underwent one extended procedure and for every 13 who had two extended procedures, one patient had a delay in receipt of chemotherapy. For every 14 patients who had one complication and for every four who had two complications, one patient had a delay in receipt of chemotherapy. The occurrence of more than two perioperative complications (hazard ratio 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-1.49) and initiation of chemotherapy more than 12 weeks after surgery (hazard ratio 1.32, 95% CI 1.07-1.64) were associated with decreased survival.

CONCLUSION: : Extended cytoreductive surgery and perioperative complications significantly delay initiation but do not increase the chance of omission of chemotherapy for women with ovarian cancer.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: : II.

PMID: 22996105 [PubMed - in process]