AllDocs -> cancers

Updated January 2002 What is gynecologic cancer ? Gynecologic cancer is the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells originating in the female reproductive organs, including the cervix, ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, vagina and vulva. What causes gynecologic cancer ? Biomedical research has discovered that some genes, called oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, promote the growth of cancer . You can acquire these genetic mutations during life (e.g. through smoking, aging or environmental influences) or you can inherit these mutations from your parents or grandparents. Can gynecologic cancer be prevented? Diet, exercise and lifestyle choices play a significant role in the prevention of cancer . Additionally, knowing your family history can increase your chance of early diagnosis and can help you take action towards prevention. Regular screening ...

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF OVARIAN CANCER IN ILLINOIS by Holly L. Howe, Ph.D. Division of Epidemiologic Studies A Publication of the Illinois Department of Public Health Division of Epidemiologic Studies Springfield, IL 62761 February 1996 Page 2 Suggested Citation Howe HL. Epidemiology of ovarian cancer in Illinois. Epidemiologic Report Series 96:2 Springfield, IL: Illinois Department of Public Health, February 1996. Copyright Information All material in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated. Page 3 1 EPIDEMIOLOGY OF OVARIAN CANCER IN ILLINOIS INTRODUCTION Advocacy groups clamor for more effective early detection of ovarian cancer in the hope that it will reduce the devastating mortality ...

Genetic Testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancer May 2002 Jennifer Silverman Stanford University, Stanford CA 94309 USA E-mail: jsilverman@stanford.edu Abstract Genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer has been publicly available since the mid-1990 discovery of two breast/ ovarian cancer susceptibility genes named BRCA1 and BRCA2. Although many professionals say that genetic testing may be the best available preventative medicine breakthrough, controversy abounds over whether the medical benefits of BRCA1/2 mutation testing outweigh the psychological and financial costs. This study uses three models to analyze 104 women’s responses to a self-designed questionnaire: a logit regression model, an ordered probit regression model, and a cost effectiveness model. The regression models use questionnaire responses to learn how the benefits and costs of genetic testing affect a woman’s decision to ...

Pure Appl. Chem. , Vol. 74, No. 8, pp. 1451–1459, 2002. © 2002 IUPAC 1451 Carotenoids and cervical, breast, ovarian , and colorectal cancer . Epidemiology and clinical trials* Cheryl L. Rock Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA Abstract : Recent observational studies and clinical trials that have investigated the relation- ship between carotenoids (or diets rich in these compounds) and cervical, breast, ovarian , and colorectal cancer have increased knowledge in this area. Although epidemiological studies suggest a protective association, five randomized controlled trials testing the effect of beta- carotene supplementation on regression of cervical dysplasia, a preneoplastic lesion, did not find an effect on rate of regression. In the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study, the effects of a high-vegetable ...

The Patient Active Guide to Living With Ovarian Cancer ® Page 2 We welcome you to The Patient Active Guide to Living With Ovarian Cancer . The very act of reading this booklet is in itself a part of becoming Patient Active with cancer . It is our hope that this guide will help you strategize with your physician about your treatment and identify valuable support services that can make a difference in your fight for recovery. You are not alonethere is a whole community of cancer survivors and their caregivers waiting to help with information and support at The Wellness Community and through a variety of excellent ovarian cancer patient advocacy organizations nationwide. Thank you for selecting this guide as a resource! The Wellness Community-National Page 3 The Patient Active Guide to Living With Ovarian Cancer TABLE OF CONTENTS ...

49 SURGERY FOR OVARIAN CANCER DAVID M. GERSHENSON and J. TAYLOR WHARTON Ovarian cancer , one of the most challenging diseases facing gynecologic oncologists, is currently the second most common malignancy of the female genital tract in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, 1 25,200 new cases of ovarian cancer and 14,500 deaths from the disease in the United States were esti- mated for 1999. Surgery remains the cornerstone in the management of ovarian cancer . This chapter reviews current prac- tices in surgical management, including primary sur- gery, secondary procedures, second-look laparotomy, and surgery for complications of ovarian cancer and its therapy. Although many of the concepts and principles apply equally to all three broad categories of ovarian cancer —epithelial, germ cell, and sex cord–stromal— ...

Fox Chase Cancer Center 2001 Scientific Report Drug Resistance in Model Systems. Hamilton, Ozols, Selvakumaran, Williams, Bao, Bingham, Schoenberger The aggressive therapy of ovarian cancer includes, as a cornerstone, cisplatin or one of its analogs. Thus, our investigations of the mechanisms of drug resistance in ovarian can- cer cells primarily involve the study of mecha- nisms of platinum resistance. One approach we have used to study this problem has been to produce cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cell lines by exposure of drug sensitive cell lines to increasing concentrations of cisplatin. The most resistant of these variants, C200, is nearly 500-fold resistant to cisplatin. These cell lines show a complex cross-resistance phenotype typical of clinical ovarian cancer ; they are cross-resistant to carboplatin, tetraplatin, mel- phalan, mitomycin C, adriamycin, ...

M M I I S S S S E E D D A A T T A A L L K K W W A A N N T T T T O O S S E E E E A A T T A A L L K K A A G G A A I I N N O O r r d d e e r r a a C C D D / / D D V V D D V V i i d d e e o o o o f f t t h h e e S S y y m m p p o o s s i i u u m m o o n n O O v v a a r r i i a a n n C C a a n n c c e e r r a a n n d d H H i i g g h h - - R R i i s s k k W W o o m m e e n n : : I I m m p p l l i i c c a a t t i i o o n n s s o o f f P P r r e e v v e e n n t t i i o o n n , , S S c c r r e e e e n n i i n n g g a a n n d d E E a a r r l l y y D D e e t t e e c c t t i i o o n n www.upci.upmc.edu/internet/events/ ovarian .html Held Monday, May 6 & Tuesday, May 7, 2002 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania C C o o n n t t e e n n t t s s i i n n c c l l u u d d e e s s p p e e a a k k e e r r s s ’ ’ t t a a l l k k s s a a n n d d a a c c o o p p y y o o f f t t h h e e i i r r s s l ...

USC CLINICAL GENETICS UNDERSTANDING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY OF BREAST CANCER OR OVARIAN CANCER UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE DEPARTMENT OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY DIVISION OF GENETICS Location: Two Medical Park Suite 301 Columbia, SC 29203 Phone: 803-779-4928 ext. 228 Toll free in SC: 800-544-9866 Fax: 803-434-6852 (laboratory) Fax: 803-434-4596 (genetic counselors) E-mail: uscgenetics@medpark.sc.edu Web: www.med.sc.edu/uscgenetics 12 I dentification of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast and ovarian cancer genes has made physicians, and the women they treat more aware of how family history can affect a person’s risk for developing cancer . Breast cancer is the most common cancer detected in women. In the year 2000 alone, an estimated 193,700 new cases were ...

W OMEN AT HIGH RISK for ovarian cancer — the most lethal gynecological malig- nancy—can now benefit from cutting- edge research that has yielded several methods for early detection, all of which are available at NYU Medical Center. “Until recently, there were no tests to accurately diagnose ovarian cancer or disease confined to the ovary, much less predict the development of any cancer ,” explains David A. Fishman, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Gyneco- logic Oncology. “Today, based on our research employing new computer sophistication and ultrasensitive technol- ogy, we can look beyond cells to genes and proteins for abnormalities that may indicate precancerous changes.” As Director of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program ( NOCEDP ), Dr. ...

OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH WHEREAS: Ovarian cancer has long been called a “silent killer,” because it occurs in an organ deep in the pelvis and produces vague symptoms that may be dismissed; and WHEREAS: Recent studies have identified factors that put women at higher risk of developing ovarian cancer , such as a family history of breast and ovarian cancer , no pregnancies or infertility, no history of oral contraceptive use, or the use of high-dose estrogen for long periods without progesterone; and WHEREAS: Early detection remains the most valuable weapon against ovarian cancer ; however, there is not a simple early detection method. Subtle symptoms include pelvic and abdominal pressure; bloating; pain, swelling or discomfort; unexpected weight gain or loss, especially weight gain in the abdominal area; gastrointestinal problems; and back pain and fatigue. ...

VI-1 Section VI. O VARIAN C ANCER R ESEARCH P ROGRAM CONTENTS The Disease History of the OCRP Program Background Congressional Appropriation and Funding History FY99 Program FY00 Program Scientific Achievements Summary FY00 Integration Panel Members Page 2 VI-2 The Disease Ovarian cancer ranks first among gynecological cancers in the number of new deaths it causes in the United States each year. An estimated 23,100 women will be diagnosed with and 14,000 will die from ovarian cancer in 2000 in the United States. 1 Ovarian cancer is often without overt or specific symptoms until late in the disease process. The overall 5-year survival rate ...

VI-1 Section VI. O VARIAN C ANCER R ESEARCH P ROGRAM CONTENTS The Disease History of the OCRP Program Background Congressional Appropriation and Funding History FY00 Program FY01 Program Scientific Achievements Summary FY01 Integration Panel Members Page 2 VI-2 The Disease Ovarian cancer is projected to be the fifth most common cause of cancer death among women in the United States in 2001. This year an estimated 23,400 women will be diagnosed with and 13,900 will die from ovarian cancer in the United States. Among gynecological cancers in 2001, ovarian cancer ranks second in the number of new cases and first in the number of cancer deaths. ...

MECHANISMS OF DISEASE 572 THE LANCET • Vol 359 • February 16, 2002 • www.thelancet.com Background New technologies for the detection of early- stage ovarian cancer are urgently needed. Pathological changes within an organ might be reflected in proteomic patterns in serum. We developed a bioinformatics tool and used it to identify proteomic patterns in serum that distinguish neoplastic from non-neoplastic disease within the ovary. Methods Proteomic spectra were generated by mass spectroscopy (surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionisation). A preliminary “training” set of spectra derived from analysis of serum from 50 unaffected women and 50 patients with ovarian cancer were analysed by an iterative searching algorithm that identified a proteomic pattern that completely discriminated cancer from non- cancer . The discovered pattern was then used to classify an ...

November/December 2001, Vol.8, No.6 Supplement 1 Cancer Control 19 The treatment of advanced ovarian cancer has evolved over the past 20 years. Although effective early diagnosis continues to be elusive and the man- agement of relapsed ovarian cancer does not offer a cure, new therapeutic advances offer many women longer disease-free intervals and improved quality of life with disease. The focus of this program has been to explore the management of advanced ovarian cancer in ways that would promote optimum disease response to various antitumor agents and maximize quality of life during the disease trajectory. For the Nonresponsive or Platinum- Refractory Patient In patients who either do not achieve a clinical response to their initial therapy or who progress while on primary therapy and are considered refrac- tory to platinum,it is clear that standard therapy ...

Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program 2000 Awards Book September 2001 Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command MCMR-PLF, 1077 Patchel Street Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5024 Page 2 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..1 Fiscal Year 2000 Ovarian Cancer Research Program Funded Awards Ovarian Cancer New Investigator Awards .3 Program Project Awards ..4 Investigator-Initiated Research Project Award .4 Fiscal Year 2000 Ovarian Cancer Research Program Participants Peer Reviewers ..6 Integration Panel Members . .10 Ad Hoc Programmatic Reviewers . 11 Glossary of Terms ..13 Page 3 1 Introduction INTRODUCTION The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is ...

Genetics in Primary Care: A Faculty Development Initiative Syllabus Material Breast and Ovarian Cancer Module: Page 1 Breast and Ovarian Cancer A resident asks. Why should a primary care doctor know about breast or ovarian cancer genetics? Key Points : Family history is an important tool in the assessment of breast and ovarian cancer risk Women are concerned about breast cancer and often over-estimate their risk. They may view themselves as candidates for genetic testing when their likelihood of a positive test is minimal. BRCA1/2 mutations are rare and there are few data to assess the outcome benefits of interventions to reduce risk Testing for BRCA1/2 is mentioned frequently in the medical and lay press. Your patient may ask you about the availability of gene testing for breast cancer Learning Objectives for the Breast Cancer Module: Participants ...

86 12. OVARIAN CANCER SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common malignancy diagnosed in Connecticut women, accounting for 3.5 percent of invasive cancers. It is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies, accounting for about 5 percent of cancer deaths among Connecticut women or 200 deaths each year. Stage at Diagnosis and Relative Survival Rate Ovarian cancer has the worst prognosis of any gynecological cancer , because it produces no symptoms until it is at an advanced stage. In the United States, cancer incidence and survival rates are reported through the SEER program (see Appendix A). Between 1992 and 1997, 26 percent of ovarian cancers were localized at diagnosis, where the five-year relative survival rate was 95 percent, 10 percent had spread regionally by the time of diagnosis, where ...

The RAGs Software: Genetic Risk Assessment Guidelines for Breast/ Ovarian and Colorectal Cancer Jon Emery, 1999 General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 2SR, United Kingdom. Email: jde10@medschl.cam.ac.uk IMPORTANT INFORMATION The breast/ ovarian and colorectal guidelines below were designed as demonstration guidelines to test the RAGs ( R isk A ssessment in G enetic s ) software. They are presented here for information purposes only, to supplement the paper by Coulson et al. (2001) “RAGs: A Novel Approach to Computerized Genetic Risk Assessment and Decision Support from Pedigrees” in Methods of Information In Medicine . Unlike official published guidelines, the protocols below have not received professional validation ...

May 25, 2000 Addendum to the Fiscal Year 2000 (FY00) Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) Announcement This addendum has been provided to address questions about the Program Project Award mechanism. Program Project Awards are one of two funding mechanisms offered by the Department of Defense (DOD) OCRP for FY00. One of the goals of the Program Project Award mechanism is to enhance ovarian cancer research infrastructure. To extend infrastructure to a greater number of institutions, the OCRP Integration Panel (IP), consisting of experts from academic and non-DOD government institutions, has expressed a strong interest in recommending for funding those scientifically meritorious proposals from institutions that do not have active DOD or National Cancer Institute (NCI) program project-type grants for ovarian cancer research at the release date of the FY00 Program Announcement. Specifically, ...

Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program 1999 Awards Book September 2000 Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command MCMR-PLF, 1077 Patchel Street Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5024 Page 2 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..1 Fiscal Year 1999 Ovarian Cancer Research Program Funded Awards Idea Awards 5 New Investigator Awards.7 Fiscal Year 1999 Ovarian Cancer Research Program Participants Peer Reviewers11 Integration Panel Members..15 Glossary of Terms..19 Page 3 1 Introduction INTRODUCTION The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is pleased to present the award list of funded projects for the fiscal year 1999 (FY99) Ovarian Cancer Research Program. Award negotiations ...

Ovarian Cancer What Is Cancer ? Cancer is a group of many related diseases. All forms of cancer involve out-of-control growth and spread of abnormal cells. Normal body cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. During the early years of a person's life, normal cells divide more rapidly until the person becomes an adult. After that, normal cells of most tissues divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells and to repair injuries. Cancer cells, however, continue to grow and divide, and can spread to other parts of the body. These cells accumulate and form tumors (lumps) that may compress, invade, and destroy normal tissue. If cells break away from such a tumor, they can travel through the bloodstream, or the lymph system to other areas of the body. There, they may settle and form "colony" tumors. In their new location, the cancer cells continue growing. The spread of a tumor to a new site ...

Medical Science Division 163 Drug Resistance in Model Systems. Hamilton, Ozols, Selvakumaran, Williams, Bao, Bingham, Schoenberger The aggressive therapy of ovarian cancer includes, as a cornerstone, cisplatin or one of its analogs. Thus, our investigations of the mechanisms of drug resistance in ovarian can- cer cells primarily involve the study of mecha- nisms of platinum resistance. One approach we have used to study this problem has been to produce cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cell lines by exposure of drug sensitive cell lines to increasing concentrations of cisplatin. The most resistant of these variants, C200, is nearly 500-fold resistant to cisplatin. These cell lines show a complex cross-resistance phenotype typical of clinical ovarian cancer ; they are cross-resistant to carboplatin, tetraplatin, melphalan, mitomycin C, adriamycin, mito- ...

51 T he presence of simultaneous carcinomas involving both the ovary and uterine corpus is rel- atively uncommon, and only 0.7–10% of patients with epithelial ovarian or uterine cancers have been found to have simultaneous tumours in large series. 1 However, these synchronous tumours represent a diagnostic and ther- apeutic challenge, particularly if they have a similar histol- ogy. Here we present the case of a 34-year-old woman with endometrioid cancers of both ovaries and adenocarcinoma of the uterus. C A S E RE POR T The patient was referred to our hospital because of metror- rhagia and lower abdominal pain of six months duration. She had started to menstruate at the age of 14 and her periods were irregular, occurring every 2–3 months, but with no associated abdominal pain. Five years earlier she had a spontaneous abortion during the12 ...

November 1999 Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command MCMR-PLF, 524 Palacky Street Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5024 Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program 1998 Awards Book Page 2 INTRODUCTION The Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is pleased to present the award list and abstracts of funded projects for the Fiscal Year 1998 (FY98) Ovarian Cancer Research Program. On September 30, 1999 award negotiations were completed. The awards listed in this document were selected by a competitive two-tiered review process. Funding decisions were based upon scientific excellence evaluated in the first tier of review followed by programmatic relevance judged in the second tier. These projects represent a diverse portfolio of scientific research directed ...

Vol. 6, No. 6 February 18, 2000 Innovative ovarian cancer research spanning detection and treatment is taking place at USC/Norris Compre- hensive Cancer Center, thanks to seed money donated by the Los Angeles- based Lynne Cohen Foundation. The donations—to studies that have now shown enough promise to garner ma- jor federal funding—highlight the importance of private donations to the steady progress in cancer research. Started in 1998 by three young sis- ters in honor of their mother who had recently succumbed to ovarian cancer , the Lynne Cohen Foundation is dedi- cated to providing start-up funding for research that shows signs of increas- ing the survival rate for women with the disease. The funds are designed to act as a springboard to help physicians/scien- tists conduct pioneering ovarian can- cer research that might otherwise never ...

Ovarian cancer usually grows for about 2 years before it produces symptoms, a large British study indicates. The delay explains why doctors diagnose only about one-fourth of cases before the disease has spread to other tissues, according to the researchers. A sensitive blood test, used in the study to indicate when disease originated, could be widely employed to screen postmenopausal women for ovarian cancer , the researchers assert. Such screening could detect more cases early, when treatments are most effective, they say. When the cancer is detected while confined to the ovaries, 90 percent of women survive at least 5 years, says Robert C. Bast Jr., an oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Only 15 to 20 percent of women in whom the cancer has spread beyond the pelvic cavity survive 5 years. In the new study, a team led by Ian J. Jacobs of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital ...

For the female body, ovulation is hard work. An ovary secretes hormones, produces an egg, thrusts it through a wall of tissue, and afterward repairs the rupture. Four weeks later, the process repeats. Scientists have suspected that the frequency and rigor of tissue rebuilding can lead to ovar- ian cancer because, after each ovulation, the manufacture of new cells requires synthesis of DNA. This cell proliferation is thought to open the door to mutations in the p53 gene, which produces one of the body’s natural cancer fighters. Now, a new study bolsters this incessant-ovulation theory (SN:10/31/92, p. 298) and its corollary that pregnancy, breast feeding an infant, or taking oral contraceptives lessens a woman’s cancer risk by giving her welcome rests from ovulation and easing wear and tear on the ovaries. The key element in this theory is the p53 gene, which normally blocks cell division when a cell has sustained ...

Reducing the risk of ovarian cancer Birth control pills lessen risk of ovarian cancer even among women carrying harmful muta- tions in one of the so-called breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, a new study finds. A team led by researchers at the University of Toronto and Women’s College Hospital in Toronto compared 207 patients who had ovarian cancer and a mutated BRCA gene with 161 of these women’s sisters who didn’t have the cancer . The patients averaged 54 years old and the sisters 52 years old. Half of the patients reported having used birth control pills at some point in their lives, on average for 4 years. Among the 50 sisters without cancer who carried the BRCA1 mutation, 77 percent had taken oral contraception, averaging 5 years on the pill. Only three of the sisters showed the BRCA2 mutation. The data demonstrated that risk of ovarian cancer decreases as years of birth-control pill ...

Gene therapy for breast, ovarian cancer A novel gene therapy technique may one day hold out promise for women with breast or ovarian cancer . Naoto T. Ueno of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and his colleagues knew that 20 to 30 percent of ovarian and breast cancer patients have a gene, called HER-2/neu, that is hyperactive. They also knew that women with this overactive gene tend to have a poor therapeutic outlook. “The cancer is aggressive,” Ueno says. The team wanted to see if it could slow the cancer by countering the action of HER-2/neu in cancer cells. To do that, the researchers turned to another gene, E1A, which is thought to work by turning off HER-2/neu. They had previously used the E1A gene to treat mice with ovarian cancer . The Texas team recruited 12 people with advanced ovarian or breast cancer . Each recruit received weekly injections ...