(Press-News.org) UC Davis study should help guide patients and their oncologists
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Combing data collected on thousands of California ovarian cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have determined that almost one-third survived at least 10 years after diagnosis.
The unprecedented findings upend the notion that women diagnosed with cancer of the ovary always face a poor chance of survival. In fact, while the study confirmed earlier findings on characteristics associated with ovarian cancer survival -- younger age, earlier stage and lower grade tumors at diagnosis -- it also identified a surprising number of long-term survivors who didn't meet those criteria.
"The perception that almost all women will die of this disease is not correct," says Rosemary Cress, lead author of the paper, published online today in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "This information will be helpful to physicians who first diagnose these patients and the obstetricians/gynecologists who take care of them after they receive treatment from specialists."
Cress, an epidemiologist and associate adjunct professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences, used the California Cancer Registry to analyze data reported on all California residents diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer between 1994 and 2001. Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common type of ovarian cancer, occurring in nine out of 10 cases.
Of the 11,541 patients in the registry database, 3,582 (31 percent) survived more than 10 years, Cress and her colleagues discovered. It was the first time that research has looked at 10-year trajectories for patients; most survival studies have looked only at 5-year survival or less.
As expected, the study found that the majority of the long-term survivors were younger, had early-stage disease when they were diagnosed and their tumors were of a lower-risk tissue type. What struck the researchers was that of the 3,582 long-term survivors, 954 of them had been considered to be at high risk of dying from their disease, either because of their tumor stage, grade or older age at diagnosis.
"This information is important for patient counseling," says study co-author Gary Leiserowitz, a professor of gynecologic oncology and interim chair of the UC Davis Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Many patients and physicians know that ovarian cancer is a dangerous cancer, but they don't realize that there is significant biological variability among patients. It's not a uniformly fatal prognosis."
One such survivor is Jacqueline Price, 74. The Fair Oaks, Calif. woman was diagnosed at age 60 with stage IIIC ovarian cancer. Determined to make the right decision about how to proceed, she asked the doctor for the pathology report.
"It said I had two months and to call hospice," says Price. "I thought, if I only have a couple of months, I want to spend it with my family. I wasn't going to have any treatment. It was doom and gloom."
Leiserowitz, her oncologist, urged Price to reconsider. When the "fog cleared," Price recalls, she opted to go ahead with the surgery, and soon afterward agreed to aggressive chemotherapy treatment.
"I cannot even imagine missing these past 15 years," Price says now. Her experience spurred her to reach out to other ovarian cancer patients and survivors as an advocate and "healing circle" organizer. She says findings from the UC Davis study will help women understand that ovarian cancer is not an automatic death sentence, she says, and empower them to remain optimistic, which in and of itself can benefit survivorship.
Leiserowitz says the next step in the research is to figure out why so many women who are given a poor prognosis eventually beat their odds.
"For a disease that is so dangerous, why are so many surviving?" he asks.
Among the theories, says Leiserowitz, are that ovarian cancer patients who carry mutations in the tumor suppressor genes BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 respond better to chemotherapy than those who don't. He also suggests that other biological differences among patients with advanced ovarian cancer may affect individual outcomes. It's also possible that some patients get more effective treatment than others, boosting their survival odds.
"This is an exploratory study to figure out who has survived," Leiserowitz adds. "We can now go back and look at tumor tissue to do a comparison between long- and short-term survivors to see if there is a genetic basis for that."
INFORMATION:
For more information about the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, visit http://cancer.ucdavis.edu
The dull black plastic of the device on Joshua Pearce's desk belies its usefulness. Pearce picks up the box, which has a switch on the side and a small opening on top. A handful of vials sit in a bag nearby, and each would fit snugly in the opening. The set-up seems generic, even bland, except that it could radically change how we deal with water quality issues.
Pearce, who has a joint appointment as an associate professor of materials science and engineering as well as electrical and computer engineering, runs an open sustainability technology lab at Michigan Technological ...
COLLEGE STATION - Woody plant encroachment is one of the biggest challenges facing rangelands worldwide, but it consistently has been under-measured and poorly understood, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist in College Station.
Dr. Matthew Berg, an AgriLife Research postdoctoral research associate in the Texas A&M department of ecosystem and science management, is trying to change both the understanding and measurement with his latest study, which was captured in the July issue of the Rangeland Ecology and Management publication, http://bit.ly/1JK8JhU.
Berg ...
Accurately forecasting future electricity needs is tricky, with sudden weather changes and other variables impacting projections minute by minute. Errors can have grave repercussions, from blackouts to high market costs. Now, a new forecasting tool that delivers up to a 50-percent increase in accuracy and the potential to save millions in wasted energy costs has been developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Performance of the tool, called the Power Model Integrator, was tested against five commonly used forecasting ...
Fundamental differences between how the brain forms during adolescence have been discovered in children with schizophrenia and their siblings, a new study shows.
The study opens up new avenues for researchers to explore when developing treatment for the illness, which can be hugely debilitating for children.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne and the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington DC used structural brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the brains of 109 children with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), from ages 12 to 24.
They ...
The DZD-researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and German Diabetes Center Düsseldorf analyzed more than 1.800 blood samples of participants, who joined the German large-scale study KORA*. Using a comprehensive approach, the scientists investigated metabolic products (metabolites) as well as genetics of these participants. They found that the administration of Metformin** in patients suffering from Type 2 Diabetes led to a change in metabolite levels. According to the authors, this was associated with a significantly decreased level of LDL cholesterol***, which ...
First the scaffold is cracked, then defective parts are removed: Cells repair damaged DNA by a different mechanism than so far assumed, as chemists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have shown.
Defects in DNA can cause serious harm to an organism, including cell death or the development of cancer. Efficient repair mechanisms are therefore of vital importance. LMU chemist Professor Christian Ochsenfeld, Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at LMU, and Dr. Keyarash Sadeghian from his group have explained for the first time in detail how a human DNA repair ...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (August 6, 2015) - There are times when emergency physicians can't be 100 percent sure a person is suffering from a severe allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis, and may hesitate to use epinephrine. A new article says when in doubt - administer the epinephrine.
An article in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), highlights recommendations from a panel discussion among allergists and emergency physicians. The panel of experts examined barriers ...
Scientists at the University of Newcastle, UK, have used a combination of small molecules to turn cells isolated from human skin into Schwann cells - the specialised cells that support nerves and play a role in nerve repair. This new method generates large and pure populations of Schwann cells and hence is a promising step forward for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. This research has just been published in the scientific journal Development at http://dev.biologists.org/
Currently, nerve repair strategies involve taking grafts from patients and using these to ...
TORONTO, August 5 2015 -- The term "self-regulation" has started appearing in children's report cards of late, but what it means is often unclear to parents. Thanks to three York University researchers, who have created a clear-cut definition for learning this important psychological concept, parents and teachers can now have a better understanding of what "self-regulation" means and how they can help their children develop that capacity.
"My hope is that every parent whose child has had a meltdown in a mall, and every teacher who has to work hard every day to prevent ...
PHILADELPHIA -- Moles are benign tumors found on the skin of almost every adult. Scientists have known for years that a mutation in the BRAF gene makes them start growing, but until now haven't understood why they stop. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a major genetic factor that keeps moles in their usual non-cancerous, no-growth state. The study was published online first this summer in the journal Cancer Discovery.
"The BRAF mutation that stimulates the initial growth of moles also stimulates the ...
