PROGESTERONE: FRIEND OR FOE?

            Linda on top of the world:  Colorado  

  What’s a dumb geologist to do?  I took them at their word; taking birth control pills cut the probability of contracting OVCA.  Presumably, I thought, because it cut down on ovulation and associated phenomena, and therefore – I surmised – reduced the risk of deleterious mutations.  Now, however, if you can believe the rats (lab mice, actually), an important hormone contained in such medicaments - progesterone – actually aids metastatic behavior!  Thus, if you do get cancer, the pills will help it spread faster?  So, I guess, you[d better read the article below, then ask somebody who actually understand these things.

ttps://ovariancancernewstoday.com/2021/02/18/progesterone-may-help-drive-spread-ovarian-cancer-preclinical-study/  LINDA ON TOP OF THE WORLD:  Colorado

RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL

 Linda stands astride the northern and southern hemispheres  (Ecuador)

A new word for me, but easy to decipher: using radiation as a drug.  We have long known that radiation can be used to kill cancer cells.  The problem, a serious one, always has been to guide the lethal alpha particles and their kin to the unwanted cancer cells without destroying useful things (as, brain, heart, liver, etc.) in the process.  If I read this article correctly, it appears possible to convert ordinary lead (Pb) into a radioactive isotope (Pb 214) with a half-life of 25 minutes.  It also appears to be possible to attach these little activated suckers to a molecule called trastuzumab that somehow has the important property of being able to search out and glom onto cancer cells.  Then the Pb214 kills the cell with a burst of sub-atomic ejecta.  How all this works is well outside my pay grade, obviously.  Read the article and you will be enlightened.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/750426 

 

 

BLOBOLOGY

                             Linda with Amanda Kelly

Amanda is of this moment (2021) the mother of three totally                            wonderful great grandkidaof my

This is not about a new breakthrough in ovarian cancer research, but rather a fascinating description of a important new tool in bio-medical research, a device that permits you to actually SEE the structure of all but the smallest organic molecules!  Sure to have cost an unimaginable sum; we can reasonably expect great benefits to flow therefrom. 

Imagine being able to study the shape and structure of things this small!  My experience with microscopes ended with frustration and a headache; turned me away from rocks, toward tectonics.

Anyway, you should read this article.  It is well written and interesting.

https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2021/10/-blob-ology--no-more.html

 

 

A MOST VALUABLE ACCOUNT

Linda astride the eastern and western hemispheres (at Greenwich, England)

“My belly button saved my life”.  Kind of a funky title for what turns out to be a most valuable and serious, article about ovarian cancer.

The author is 44, a professional writer and OVCA sufferer, who shares her experiences in a clear and almost cheerful way.  You really should read her piece; even the most knowledgeable of you will learn something.  I’m not about to try to summarize her story; it would be impossible to do her justice.  Just click below, and if that doesn’t work copy and paste to thr Google command line (or whatever you call it).  Do it now

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ovarian-cancer-warning-signs-symptoms_n_614a31d2e4b077b735ebecc1  

 

NANOPARTICLES AND DEATH

 

 

I am more or less starting over with this blog and, as it happens, I have about 500 pictures oi Linda in a special file, so I plan to use them systematically throughout what I hope will be a long series of useful blogs.  This one is perhaps my favorite.  Hurricane Ridge and lots of love.

So, Celsion Corp has trumpeted its FDA fast-track approval for its new OVCA treatment which it calls GEN-1.  This entails delivery via nanoparticle (not a virus vector) of the drug lnterleukin-12 directly to the cancer cells, thereby reducing the probability of unwanted side effects.  IL-12 is a protein that causes inflammatory response and thus enhances the probability that the cancer cell will croak.  Use of IL-12 before and/or after debulking surgery will (or won’t, pending FDA approval) prolong remittance in the case of advanced OVCA.  Preliminary trial results look promising.

I wrote about this drug/company once before.  I even went so far as to buy a bunch of Celsion stock, at $1.88 per share.  Since then it dropped to $1.00 and shows every sign of roosting there.  Don’t look to m for stock tips!

 

https://ovariancancernewstoday.com/2021/02/25/fda-grants-fast-track-designation-celsions-gen-1-advanced-ovarian-cancer/