Ovarian Cancer

My wife died on Valentine's Day, and I never thought that the holiday would be the same again.

If your chair was cold, I knew you were two floors down in the NICU cradling your only child – the only one I’d be able to give you – making sure his IV and nutrition lines were also connected and beeping lively and skipping at the same beat as mine.

Overall survival should not be the sole factor in determining whether a drug gets approved, according to Maurie Markman, M.D.

As genetic testing becomes more accessible with advanced technology and decreased costs, population-based testing for breast and ovarian cancer may be more cost effective in the long run, according to study results published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

“Obesity has been previously investigated for its role in cancer and promoting tumor growth, at least partially by inducing a chronic inflammatory state,” the authors wrote. “However, it’s unclear how this would play out in the era of immunotherapy, where inflammation has been linked to treatment response.”

“Adding HIPEC to interval debulking improved both recurrence free survival and overall survival without increasing morbidity,” said van Driel.

As costs decrease, and physicians move to address barriers to genetic testing, a panel of physicians, researchers and a patient advocate highlighted the importance for people to get tested.

Even when a patient thinks they may have exhausted their very last treatment option, the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study is just the thing they may need.

Some patients refer to this as their cancerversary. With two years in the rear-view mirror, I’m calling it my Everything-From-Here-On-Out-Is-Gravy Day.

Cristiana Sessa, M.D., of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, discusses the evolution of how PARP inhibitors are used to treat ovarian cancer.

To date, trials testing the use of immunotherapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer yielded disappointing results. However, researchers are not giving up. Instead, they’re investigating to see if immunotherapy drugs – such as PD1 and PDL-1 inhibitors – can be combined with other agents to benefit patients.

New discoveries happen often. Is there one for us?

“As the population of cancer survivors continues to grow, so does the importance of addressing the long-term sequelae of cancer treatment,” the authors wrote. “This hearing loss can result in multifaceted decrease in quality of life, and in pediatric patients it can impact social and academic development.”

Let's recognize time as the gift it is, and chart a course for making 2018 really count.