ONCLIVE: Strictly for the enthusiast

Linda and Patches

Good friends, as you can see.

There is an outfit called OncLive that reports on developments in all sorts of cancer research.  The technical level of the reportage is somewhere between that of typical British tabloid (New Chemical Found in Carrots and Pipe Tobacco Cures Cancer in a Matter of Weeks,  says Noted Authority) and the New England Journal of Medicine (Well, I won’t try to characterize this approach: I wouldn’t understand half the words, anyway).  I have just read an OncLive article on a seminar or small meeting concerned with treatment of ovarian cancer.  It is informative, but more than a little depressing.  Here it is:

http://www.onclive.com/web-exclusives/adjuvant-hormonal-therapy-linked-to-improved-outcomes-in-ovarian-cancer

Much of the discussion revolves around the topic of which course of chemo is best used when gains made  by debulking + adjutant chemo begin to be reversed.  The debate seems to revolve around something called PFS – Progression Free Survival, or how much time elapses before the cancer begins to come back.  If I understand what I read, ultimate survival is not in question.  Whether a woman dies of the damned disease or not seems still to be in the lap of the gods.  That is why I mainly donate to the Rivkin Center nowadays: I get the impression that they are focused on genuinely innovative research.

Linda had a long stretch of PFS, and those months were amongst the best of my life.  I thank all the researchers patiently gnawing away at the immense hardwood knot that characterizes ovarian cancer.  Every nasty little chip removed helps.  However, I hope to live to see the whole damned thing blasted to Hell!

I want a cure.