Ovarian Cancer

A new international study shows that treating ovarian cancer with Avastin delays the disease progression and may improve survival. The drug, generically called bevacizumab, seemed to keep the disease from returning for two months. It was delayed five to six months in the highest risk group. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , was co-led by Drs. Amit Oza of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program at the University of Toronto and Timothy Perren of the St James' Institute of Oncology in Leeds, U.K. The study began in 2004 and continues for another year.

Carolyn Holly Howard, a practitioner of alternative medical techniques, died Tuesday at her Baltimore home after an eight-year battle with ovarian cancer. The resident of the Woodlands at Coldspring Newtown was 61. Ms. Howard was born in Dallas, Texas, but moved around a lot as a child because of her father's work running Christian summer camps for a national organization. The family eventually settled in Ridgewood, N.J., where Ms. Howard graduated from high school. She attended Hope College in Holland, Mich., and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., before moving to California in the 1970s.

When cancer experts announced yesterday that they had identified certain symptoms that might indicate ovarian cancer, they sent a pointed message to patients and clinicians: Scrutiny of seemingly benign physical complaints can save lives. The "first national consensus on ovarian cancer symptoms" urged women and clinicians to regard bloating, abdominal pain, eating difficulties and urinary symptoms as possible early warning signs. According to the statement by the American Cancer Society, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, women should contact their doctors if they experience such symptoms almost daily for a few weeks.

A new international study shows that treating ovarian cancer with Avastin delays the disease progression and may improve survival. The drug, generically called bevacizumab, seemed to keep the disease from returning for two months. It was delayed five to six months in the highest risk group. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , was co-led by Drs. Amit Oza of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program at the University of Toronto and Timothy Perren of the St James' Institute of Oncology in Leeds, U.K. The study began in 2004 and continues for another year.

Ovarian cancer is the most common, fatal, gynecologic cancer. Fortunately, only one in 70 women will develop this cancer. By comparison, one in 10 women will develop breast cancer.But for the 22,000 women who will be diagnosed with this cancer in the next year, it is not very comforting to realize that only 40 percent will live five years. The most frustrating fact to scientists is that despite 20 years of studies in humans and 40 years of studies in animals, we have not yet discovered how to prevent the disease.

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Ovarian-cancer survival may be predicted by the levels of two proteins in the body, a new study shows, while other recent research suggests that more women's lives might be saved by using existing tests to diagnose persistent symptoms that might indicate the presence of the so-called "silent killer." Scientists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said in a report this week that low levels of both atypical protein kinase C iota and Cyclin E corresponded to a better chance of long-term survival for patients.

Victims of ovarian cancer who are pinning their last hopes on the experimental drug taxol are suddenly fighting not just their disease but the refusal of insurance companies to cover costs of administering the drug.In Maryland, many doctors and patients say they are angry that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland and other smaller insurers suddenly began in October to refuse to pay for taxol after more than a year of approving claims.Some companies, including Blue Cross, even began to ask some patients to return money paid for past treatments, saying in letters that the reimbursements were made in error.

PHILADELPHIA -- Most women with highly curable early-stage ovarian cancer are not meticulously checked during surgery to see if the disease has spread -- a lapse that could lead to death, according to a new National Cancer Institute study.The study also found that women frequently are not given the state-of-the-art chemotherapy recommended for ovarian cancer, especially if they are 65 or older and have advanced disease."It certainly is disturbing that people aren't getting the treatment we recommend," said Dr. Edward Trimble, an NCI researcher who presented the findings yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Philadelphia.

Researchers have clarified the vague warning signs of ovarian cancer - the so-called "silent killer" - which could lead to earlier detection and improved survival rates among women with the disease. Many healthy women experience at least some of the symptoms associated with the cancer, which is generally diagnosed only after it has reached an advanced stage. But scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle found that the symptoms - which include bloating, constipation, fatigue and urinary problems - occurred more frequently and with more severity in women with malignancies.

Lois M. Kennedy, a homemaker who earlier had been a department store clerk, died Nov. 17 of ovarian cancer at her Columbia home. She was 82. Lois Moore was born in Jefferson, Iowa, and was raised there and in Des Moines. After graduating from Des Moines High School in 1945, she moved to Richland, Wash., where she took a job as a secretary for General Electric Co. While working in Richland, she met her future husband, James Kennedy, an FBI agent who was assigned to the bureau's Richland field office.

CHICAGO - In the high-profile world of breast cancer advocacy, women with a hereditary predisposition to the disease often feel overlooked. That's why it meant so much when actress Christina Applegate acknowledged last month that she has a genetic mutation known as BRCA1 linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Applegate, 36, went further, disclosing that she had had both breasts surgically removed. The actress' mother has battled cancer twice and "I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said on Good Morning America.

Christina Applegate is young, beautiful, famous and stunningly candid about her decision to have both breasts removed rather than live in dread that her breast cancer would return. "I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said on Good Morning America this week. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one." Applegate, star of Samantha Who? and, previously, of Married ... with Children, is just 36. She was found to have breast cancer in July, and it wasn't a surprise. Her mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor, so Applegate had been getting mammograms since she was 30. More important, the young actress tested positive for a mutation in what is called the breast cancer gene, BRCA1.

Sen. Barack Obama's personal doctor said yesterday that the Democratic presidential candidate is in excellent health but is struggling, with some success, to quit smoking. Dr. David L. Scheiner, Obama's primary care physician since 1987, said his patient has desirable blood pressure and cholesterol, jogs regularly and is "lean and muscular with no excess body fat." One worry: Obama, 46, has a history of "intermittent cigarette smoking," said Scheiner, adding that the Illinois senator has quit several times and is currently using Nicorette gum "with success."

Kathleen Drenga Glass, a certified public accountant, died of ovarian cancer Saturday at her Westtown, Pa., home. The former Towson resident was 56. Born Kathleen Drenga in Baltimore and raised in Towson, she was a 1969 Notre Dame Preparatory School graduate. She earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Notre Dame and a master's degree in business administration from Loyola College, where she met her future husband, Dr. G. Daniel Glass, an optometrist. A certified public accountant, she joined the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen in downtown Baltimore and moved to Philadelphia in 1980.

Eighteen women in Nikki Karl's family have had breast cancer, ovarian cancer or both. Ten have died before the age of 42. Doctors X-raying Karl after she fell out of a tree at age 13 found a tumor on one of her ovaries. It was surgically removed, and she's been cancer-free ever since. The 38-year-old has a clear family history of cancer, but more than 80 percent of women who get breast cancer have no genetic mutation or family history of the disease. That percentage climbs to 95 percent when ovarian cancer is included, Karl said.

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Baltimore-based biotechnology firm, expects to move an experimental treatment for ovarian cancer into human trials late this year or early next year, Dr. Craig Smith, the company's chief executive officer, told analysts and investment managers yesterday at the BT Alex. Brown health care conferance.Craig was among the 200 biotechnology and health care executives scheduled to give presentations at the event being held in Baltimore. It concludes tomorrow.The treatment Guilford is developing is a biodegradable polymer-based gel containing the powerful cancer-fighting drug taxol.

Dr. Janet Sunness of Greater Baltimore Medical Center, a National Institutes of Health-funded researcher and international authority on vision issues, has been appointed to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration Medical Advisory Board. Sunness has served as medical director of GBMC's Hoover Rehabilitation Services for Low Vision and Blindness since March 2005. A resident of Pikesville and an ophthalmologist, Sunness is an expert on advanced dry age-related macular degeneration. Her clinical practice focuses on low vision and retinal and macular disease.

When cancer experts announced yesterday that they had identified certain symptoms that might indicate ovarian cancer, they sent a pointed message to patients and clinicians: Scrutiny of seemingly benign physical complaints can save lives. The "first national consensus on ovarian cancer symptoms" urged women and clinicians to regard bloating, abdominal pain, eating difficulties and urinary symptoms as possible early warning signs. According to the statement by the American Cancer Society, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, women should contact their doctors if they experience such symptoms almost daily for a few weeks.