A LITTLE PROGRESS

                                         Linda and her Mom

                             Shortly before the advent of Me

New research out of Yale University holds promise for an extended period of survival for OVCA victims.  Note:  it is not a cure.  It involves the combination of two drugs, one I am familiar with (bevacizumab) and another that seems to be new (ixabepilone).  Bevacizumab (Avastin) works by interfering with the tumor’s blood supply.  What ixabepilone does is beyond my current pay grade, but I will do some research and, if I am enlightened, I will share it with you in a Comment.  So, again:  not a cure, but progress none the less,

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220214183325.htm  

MUSINGS ON CAREERS

                            Keeping warm at the cabin!

I am five books into the Hillerman Leaphorn/Chee books and loving every page.  The first two in the series are sprinkled throughout with fascinating  tidbits about Navajo religion and culture, so adeptly that it almost makes me wish I had gone into anthropology.  But not really – for one thing, I have the Devil’s own time learning languages.  Hell, I worked in South America for more than a dozen years, & never even came close to being fluent in a simple language like Spanish!

So, no, geology was the right choice for me.  My only regret there is that it took me away from Linda so much.  If I had known what was to happen I would have stayed home a lot more.

But, heck – knowing what I know now, I certainly would have gone into cancer biology.  I might not have been much good at it, but at least I would have tried.

  God, how I hate that fucking disease!

Yeah, I’m still on the lookout for important cancer research news.  Not much new these days.  I will be vigilant.

YEAH, YEAH: I know - another review article

                                                    Sisters

Sometimes I feel more than a little foolish, foisting off yet another general review article on you as if it were newsworthy.  Believe me, I do honestly search for important OVCA-research news; unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot out there, at least right now.  The article cited below will remind you of a bunch of stuff you actually already know.  Maybe it would be useful for you to disseminate this information, possibly by means of Facebook.  In the meantime, I will continue to search for honestly important developments.

https://www.healthline.com/health/ovarian-cancer/is-ovarian-cancer-genetic 

Well, hell – I ought to stick something useful in this stupid blog.  September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.  If you forgot, be prepared to give generously in a few months.  Me:  I’m waiting for Linda’s birthday, 8/30.  Then I will shower a little wealth on https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573  

SOME FUN GENETICS

                                 Linda, thoroughly be-catted

Mice and humans are both mammals, but our lineages separated way back in the middle Mesozoic, even before T. rex and his buddies roamed the earth.  Given that much time, evolution has played hob with our respective genomes, developing new genes where such were required and eliminating genes that had become functionally useless.  Yet mice and men have many gene sequences in common – and until recently nobody knew why.  Well, smart folk at Fred Hutch seem to have cracked the puzzle.  These “ultra-conserved” gene sequences appear to contain “poison exons”, which are needed to allow genetic sequences to be expressed, or to make sure they aren’t.  Ultra-conserved genetic sequences are fairly common, it seems, and have been bothering evolutionary biologists for some time.

 All this has nothing much to do with ovarian cancer, but it is fun genetics and I thought you might be interested.

https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2020/01/bradley-poison-exon-essential.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hutchnewsjan2020 

SOME NEWS OUT OF FINLAND

                                       An early camping trip

                            Amazingly, that truck still exists

                                                        And runs!

Well, I don’t see this as some stupendous breakthrough, but I guess every little bit helps.  It appears that a research group in Finland has deduced just how OVCA cells – in women with BRCA1/2 mutations – avoid being attacked by the immune system.  As only about 20% of OVCA patients have these genetic failings, these Finnish results would appear to have limited applicability.  OVCA has been conspicuously resistant to immunotherapy; perhaps research like this eventually will tell us why, and what to do about it.  One can only hope.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220211102631.htm 

ANOTHER REVIEW ARTICLE

                  What can I say?  I was a cheapskate

This is a rather simplistic review of the genetics of ovarian cancer, containing lots of stuff you already know.  Nevertheless it is worth reading, or at least skimming.  Always remember:  the majority of OVCA cases are not caused by inherited genetic mutations, but rather are caused by what I think of as simple bad luck.  Your “luck” gets lessened by increased age, lots of ovulation (no birth control pills, no pregnancies), hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms, and obesity.  If you don’t understand, read the article.  Please.

https://www.healthline.com/health/ovarian-cancer/is-ovarian-cancer-genetic 

 

A SIMPLE TEST FOR OVCA

                                    Guess where

Not much here, but what little there is certainly is encouraging.  Apparently some smart people in Austria have developed a means to detect OVCA using samples from simple surgical swabs.  Apparently they look for tell-tale signs that certain genes are “methylated”.  No doubt you recall that methylation is one aspect of the epigenetic processes that (mysteriously, at least to me) control which genes are suppressed and which are permitted to function.  Apparently there is something about various aspects of this methylation thing that points to the presence of ovarian cancer – and this can be determined from a simple swab!  As I said previously, not much about the nuts and bolts of this procedure, but it is good to know about it none the less.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2306655-cervical-swabs-could-identify-people-at-high-risk-of-ovarian-cancer/