Trails being conducted on the drug Avastin are offering hope that the drug will manage to prolong life of sufferers of ovarian cancer who are terminal or in their last stages. Avastin is already seen to be effective in treating other cancers such as cancers of the bowel as well as breast cancer.

This drug is seen to starve the cancer cells by restricting their blood supply so that they are not able to grow or flourish and may be even more effective it used in the earlier stages of the cancer to prevent its spread.

The drug is not cheap, however it is being seen as a very significant development in the field of ovarian cancer which has seen no particular advancement in over two decades, and is therefore a welcome advancement in this field.

This kind of female cancer is known as the silent killer because ovarian cancer exhibits few or no symptoms in the earlier stages and is therefore very difficult to detect and start treatment for.

New Method

Those afflicted with ovarian cancer might have had a better chance had it been caught earlier and now there are studies to prove a new screening method does 99.9 percent of the time with few false positives.

This method, called The Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm or ROCA, uses the CA-125 type of blood testing trends combined with pre-menopausal woman’s average age.

The author of the study, Karen Lu, MD, stated that only two cases were not reported and these two were borderline, meaning they may or may have not been cancerous. Every other case of the ovarian cancer was caught, no matter what stage it was at.

Better Chances of Detection

This is a major advance because the rate at which ovarian cancer is detected now, of most cases are in too an advanced stage to treat and 90 percent of these cases are terminal. With this new screening method, even the earliest cases can be detected, should it be approved for use by the FDA.

However, this screening is not to be used in daily practice just yet; there is currently a trial being conducted in the US, which includes 200,000 women. This study will not be concluded until at least 2015, when the results will be analyzed and the findings prepared for further testing if necessary.

According to a new study, if woman’s diet is rich in vegetables, fruit and grains, she has a better chance at surviving ovarian cancer.

The findings were made on the basis of questionnaires filled in by women who were diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer. They were asked to itemize what they ate in the years prior to when their diagnosis was made. In the categories and subcategories of meats, less healthy meat items included cured meats and red meat.

It was found that cruciferous vegetables (yellow vegetables and broccoli) were seen to be beneficial in improving ovarian cancer survival rates.

In contrast, unhealthy meats such as red meats and cured meats and milk and milk products were associated with shorter time of survival after diagnosis. Chicken and fish were not seen to make much of a difference either way.

Though not conclusive, what this study does is, it creates “a potential area for future research towards understanding disparities in the cancer survivorship experience”, one of the researchers was quoted as having said.

Source: latimes

Most of the women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at later stages. However, up to 17% of ovarian cancer cases were seen in women aged 40 or younger and many of them have early stage of the disease.

Surgery for ovarian cancer usually involves complete removal of the uterus (hysterectomy) and ovaries, which not only results in the loss of fertility, but also subjects young women to the long-term consequences of estrogen deprivation.

Read more news at Eurekalert

It has been estimated that almost one in seven women in Britain carries a rouge DNA that is responsible for ovarian cancer development.

Almost 7,000 women develop the disease every year and around 4,300 die.Humans have 23 pairs of each chromosome, one of each pair inherited from each parent.Scientists found that a variant version of one of these chromosomes, chromosome nine, could increase the risk of the cancer.

It is hoped that the findings will lead to tests to identify the genetic defect in women that may lead to ovarian cancer. It should help speed up diagnosis and lead to earlier treatment of the cancer, increasing the chances of survival.

Read more at telegraph.co.uk

The researchers said as the cancer is hard to detect before it has spread, they are finding ways to improve the cancer testing.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Dr. Patrick Brown of Stanford University in California, who led the study, said in a statement, “Reliable early detection can save more lives than many new anticancer drugs”.

Ovarian cancer kills 140,000 women every year globally and 15,000 in the United States alone. Genetic mutations are known to raise the risk, but most patients do not have a clear genetic risk, and no good screening test exists.

Source: Reuters

According to a new survey that came out from the Target Ovarian Cancer Study, it took 37% a few visits to the GP before they were properly diagnosed with ovarian cancer and of those 65% were not immediately referred for further testing.

The study also found that many GPs often misdiagnosed ovarian cancer labeling it Irritable Bowel Syndrome or other general illness instead of correctly identifying the disease as cancer.

Furthermore, the study reported that 44% of women did not receive a correct diagnosis until six months later after their GP visit when evidence was found and 37% had to visit their GP three to five times before they received an official referral to go see a cancer specialist.

Senior research fellow at Bristol University, Dr. Willie, Hamilton, said that the study is disturbing given that the time delay not only causes the women to suffer from a high level of anxiety, but the time delay could be causing the premature death of women in which the disease spreads past the curable stage in the lapse of treatment time.

By the time symptoms are noticeable, the cancer has often advanced past the early stages, and most women do not survive.

Now, a new way of screening patients may offer doctors and women the chance to catch early warning signs of ovarian  cancer for better treatment. Better yet, the screening method involves testing methods already available.

Routine screening with transvaginal ultrasound and the CA125 blood test can be a reliable screening method and help doctors diagnose ovarian cancer in its early stages, when almost all women can be cured.

Best outcomes resulted in using both methods of screening together. Both tests are relatively inexpensive, and easy to conduct in the physician’s office.

The CA125 blood test only requires a sample of blood, and the transvaginal ultrasound requires the physician to insert an ultrasound probe into the woman’s vagina which allows examination of the cervix, uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Most cancers of a woman’s reproductive system are found in the ovaries. Some of the risk factors for developing ovarian cancer include:

• being post-menopausal
• having a BMI of 30 or greater
• having no children
• having never breastfed a child
• having used the fertility drug Clomid [Clomid side effects]
• taking estrogen replacement therapy
• having had breast cancer
• having a family history of breast or ovarian cancer

If you have any of these risk factors, you may wish to ask your doctor about this new screening method.

At present it is not considered standard practice, but as research continues to demonstrate its effectiveness, it may become as common a screening test for women’s health as the Pap smear and mammograms.

It is a fact that most women tend to think that dietary changes alone will have a positive impact on ovarian cancer, but the more important factor here is that these women must consider an intake of more nutritious food, and also start a  regular exercise regimen in order to combat the cancerous cells that have invaded their body.

These are some of the guidelines that have been charted out for ovarian cancer treatment by the National Cancer Institute, but one has to remember that no food or diet supplements will be able to stop the recurrence of ovarian cancer or any other cancer; one can only try to reduce the chances of recurrence:

• Start eating more of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains; at least five to six servings everyday. Research has shown that these foods contain phytochemicals with antioxidant, antiestrogen and chemopreventive properties that may help to prevent the onset or recurrence of cancer [cancer prevention diet]. For many cancer patients, and ovarian cancer patients as well, it may be difficult to eat at all because of the side effects of the medication given as treatment, but the fact is that these women have to make up their minds to conquer the disease with the proper diet, and that they will make sure that their daily average requirement of proteins, vitamins, and minerals and fats are fulfilled.
• Try to achieve an optimum and ideal body weight, and maintain it no matter what, even if you are feeling nauseous and sick because of the medications you are taking.
• Start to decrease fat intake by at least thirty percent, this will help you in the long run.
• Decrease intake of smoked, pickled and salted foods.
• Try your best to avoid alcohol and other substances.
• Today, modulation of the body’s response to inflammation caused by cancerous cells is one of the favored treatments for ovarian cancer, and this can be effectively achieved by the intake of flaxseeds, walnuts, oily fish, and vegetable oils.

New research just published hopes to help with testing women for the very early stages of the disease.

The highly respected medical publication Lancet Oncology has released the findings of a massive trial that involved over 200,000 British women aged from 50 to 75. This large-scale investigation is intended to kick start the early detection of ovarian cancer.

This is just the first report from the researchers in a study that is expected to last through to 2015. It is a huge project, which began in 1985 and was intended by researchers at University College London’s institute for women’s health to last a minimum of 25 years.

The main thrust of the report shows that early detection is an absolutely vital tool for fighting ovarian cancer [Ovarian cancer treatment]. In fact the survival rate when detected early (stage 1) is as high as 90%.

Compared to stage three when the survival rate drops dramatically to a little over 25%; by the time the cancer has reached its final deadly stage four, women only have slightly more than a 15% chance of surviving for five years.

Testing can be performed quickly and painlessly with either a blood test or a scan with ultrasound equipment. The study tracked 200,000 women half of which had used one or other of the detection systems and the other half of which had no investigation.

The message from the researchers is that screening should become the regular norm for women over 50 in order to dramatically reduce the number of deaths from ovarian cancer.