Saturday, April 25, 2015

AN OVARIAN "DREAM TEAM"

At Carolyn's, a long time ago
Note that I had hair then.
She looks particularly beautiful, don't you think?
A little more than two years ago I introduced you to “Dream Teams”.  These were to be teams of diverse specialists all working together on a single project – that is, in this case, cure of some kind of cancer.  The organization pushing this approach was a product of the entertainment industry.  Its name was to be Stand Up to Cancer, or SU2C for short.  At the time I was hopeful, but slightly skeptical.  Then two years elapsed and I heard nothing about Dream Teams at all.
Well, now I have.  A consortium of funds and organization has announced a $6 million, three year attack on ovarian cancer.  Headed by SU2C, this is a genuine Dream Team venture.  At the same time a Dream Team project against lung cancer was announced.  Apparently SU2C has forked over $370 million for 16 projects since 2009; the fact that I haven’t heard about them obviously reflects on me, not SU2C.  Also, apparently SU2C was in operation long before my first Dream Team blog.  http://ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com/2013/04/dream-teams.html
Anyway: the approach to be taken in this research project is to investigate the activities (or lack of activity) of genes that affect DNA repair – such as our old friends, the PARP inhibitors.  They also will chase the Holy Grail of cancer treatment – prevention – by means not explicitly stated.  More power to them!
An interesting sidelight here is that the co-leader of this effort is Dr. Elizabeth Swisher, of U.W.  I have sat next to Dr. Swisher at several conference tables.  If I can summon the courage I will contact her and ask if I can help. –
Here is the link.  Note how many organizations are fighting ovarian cancer – and these are merely the largest.  How come OVCA is still around?


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