RUBRACARIB: It helps

       Linda preferred her camels behind a stout fence

Odd though it may seem, sometimes useful information about OVCA appears in the financial news,  For instance right now there is a flurry of interest in a drug called Rubraca (rubracarib), a PARPi (inhibits division of cancer cells),  Seems a company named Clovis Oncology, in an effort to avoid being swallowed whole by Big Pharma, has released results of a recent trial, which shows that Rubraca, their baby,  increases PFS (progression-free survival) by an average of 11 months, and has a hazard ratio of 0.65, meaning, I think, that one is 35% less likely to die than similar folks on a placebo.  Anyway:  No great breakthrough, but welcome nonetheless. 

 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clovis-oncologys-rubraca-significantly-improves-132257226.html 

Not surprisingly, Clovis Oncology stock (CLVS) gained almost 25% today.  I may buy a few shares anyway; it’s selling for $2.02/share at the moment.  But, for God’s sake, don’t go all in, whole hog, with your hard earned nest egg!  I know about as much about stocks as I do about brain surgery.

OVCA AWARENESS MONTH

                                                            Happier times

 Better late than never.  I forgot to remind you that March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.  It took a newspaper in India to jog my memory cells..

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/ovarian-cancer-awareness-month-symptoms-diagnosis-treatment-7831254/

Give ‘till it hurts:

https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573    

WHY IMMUNOTHERAPY SOMETIMES DOESN'T WORK

                Linda and the wrath of Henry VIII

I have written quite a few times previously of immunotherapy and my hope that it would be a potent weapon against ovarian cancer.  However, of late I have begun to mumble ill-temperedly about how things weren’t working out so well.  Turns out immunotherapy is a wonder-worker for some cancers, but is largely a bust for OVCA.  This website helps to explain why.

I should have written “helps”, above, because the cited article is dripping in biotech-speak, and is several rungs above my educational level.  You might give it a go anyway; you are bound to get something from it, if only a renewed appreciation of just how infernally complicated cancer biology seems to be.  For my part I glommed onto statements such as “…. The tumor knows that in the presence of this molecule it must produce this other molecule in order to protect itself from those nasty T cells and thus grow and multiply”.  (My phraseology, of course).    HOW  in hell can a tumor know anything?  More to the point, how can purely Darwinian evolution account for such a complicated defense mechanism – especially considering that the tumor in no sense “reproduces”, and moreover kills its host? 

Maybe there is a Devil, after all.

https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/102064/study-provides-possible-answers-to-why-immunotherapy-for-ovarian-cancers-often-fails/   

WHAT IS GOING ON?

 Abu Beckr ibn Myrl al Beaumonti commands you to pay                                                   attention to this blog

Okay, now, listen up!

I have been writing this blog for about nine years, and in that time I have posted a few more than 900 entries.  Google, that omniscient tech demi-god, keeps track of how many times each blog is opened (and hopefully read).  Normally I can expect about 100 “hits” per week.  They accumulate slowly; right now my total for all time is a little north of 90,000.  Not great, but not so bad, either.

Well, a few days ago a strange thing began to happen;   Instead of at most a few dozen a day I started recording hundreds!  For instance, today so far 668 souls have accessed this blog.  More astonishing yet, if Google is to believed yesterday I had 2665 readers!  The key element here, unfortunately is “to be believed.”

All I can think of is as follows:

            Google has developed a very narrowly focused glitch.

            Somewhere, someone has screwed up there computer, causing it to “read” one or more of my blogs ad infinitum.

            The State Department has decided to use my blog to teach Ukrainian refugees how not to write English.

            Somehow my blog has slithered its way onto the Kardashian web site.

            Harvard medical school has put my blog on their essential reading list.  Followed by Stanford, etc.

**********************************************

So, loyal readers.  Please, if anyone knows what is going on, let me know quick – via a comment to this blog, for instance.  I just can’t believe I’m that popular!

MORE GOOD NEWS!

                                               Two Queens

Before there is OVCA, for the most part there are “lesions”.  Lesions basically are sections of abnormal tissue, often caused by damage or disease.  They are readily detectable by existing techniques.  As I understand it, lesions are fairly common in a woman’s reproductive system, but very few of them eventually lead to full-blown cancer.  Now some smart people at Rochester University have figured out how to detect the dangerous one, using ultrasound.  This could be something of a game changer.  More good news!  Read all about it here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rsna-researchers-ultrasound-predict-ovarian-165500423.html 

ENDOMETRIOSIS: Hard to spell!

               Never happier than when holding a baby

Got any idea what “endometriosis” is?  Well, until just now neither did I.  It turns out to be a rather common woman’s disease involving “endometrial” tissue growing in places it oughtn’t to grow; probably not fatal, but distinctly uncomfortable.  Now scientists in Australia have found a genetic link between endometriosis and ovarian cancer.  Not a strong link, but a link just the same.   It is not obvious how this will help us eradicate OVCA, but of course every little bit of knowledge helps.  Let’s hope this does, soon.

Also, thanks for your best wishes on our 40^th anniversary, and your contributions to her Fred Hutch fund.

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-a-genetic-link-between-endometriosis-and-ovarian-cancer 

OUR 40th

 

Today would have been our 40^th wedding anniversary.  Of course, it still is, only Linda isn’t here to enjoy it with me.  It has been almost eleven years since ovarian cancer took her away.  I think about her every day, and I know many of you do too.  We all lost something special when Linda died.  She cast a soft and gentle light all about her; with her passing the world has been a much darker place.

Boy, had she lived, what trips we would have taken!  Maybe back to Egypt if it were mine to choose.  But I’ll bet we would spend some quality time in a few quilt museums, too.  And I could have taken her to Iceland!

 Damn cancer, anyway!

The Internet tells me that on a 40^th anniversary I should give Linda a ruby.  Since she can’t wear one I will find a nice ruby pendant for sale, and then give its price to Fred Hutch in her honor.

I love you, kid.  Always will.

https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573 

 

TOUGH GOING, BUT WORTH A TRY

                  Linda, not enjoying her camel ride

This is one for the serious students among us.  I studied it for about an hour, and understood about half of what I read.  ADC stands for antibody-drug conjugate which, if I am not mistaken, codes for a way to attach a truly nasty cell-killing drug to a molecule that will deliver it to the tumor.  It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that, which you will discover if you read the article.

Anyway, it appears that progress is being made, for which we all should be thankful.

https://www.onclive.com/view/evolving-technology-behind-adcs-could-improve-benefit-in-advanced-ovarian-cancer 

EARLY DETECTION?

                      Dinner aboard the Vesteralen

                                   Our Norwegian cruise ship

Well, it turns out that March 8^th was International Woman’s Day – and I completely missed it.  Not, however, The Guardian, one of the UK’s premier newspapers.  In the article cited below it relates how a comely lass from Belfast, Shannon Beattie by name, has received a grant of over $65,000 to fund a study of how to detect ovarian cancer early, using “biomarkers in the blood”.   More power to her!

Trouble is, the Fred Hutch outfit I tried to help tried the same trick, in the same way, to the tune of $15 million over five years – and failed.  I hope Dr. Beattie has important new insight, or at least is damned lucky!

I guess a lot of my skepticism is totally irrational, based as it is on the fact that her photo (below) seems to imply that she is about 18 years old.  After all, she is said to be the CEO of a biotech spin-off from Belfast University.  Maybe the northern Irish just grow up faster.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/06/belfast-researcher-wins-50000-prize-to-aid-early-detection-of-ovarian-cancer  

 

YEAH, REALLY ENCOURAGING!

                                             Linda in Lapland

There is nothing particularly new here, only confirmation that the research described in my last entry is something of a real big deal.  Even cursory examination of the Internet immediately turned up five renditions of the story, the version given below being perhaps the best for our purposes.  Read it and rejoice!

And, it you ever doubted that it takes exceptional smarts to make progress in cancer research, read the Wikipedia article on cytokines!

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cancer-therapy-destroys-ovarian-and-colorectal-tumors-in-6-days/ 

VERY ENCOURAGING NEWS!

                                  Where is this?

                     Maybe Liverpool University, where I once worked.

I take back all (well, most) of the bad things I have said about Texas.  The Lone Star State may be the home of quasi-whackos like Ted Cruz, but it also houses Rice University, seat of this most valuable research.

It seems that the Rice people have developed what the call a “drug factory”, more accurately a way of implanting a source for little dollops of cancer drugs in the peritoneum (think lining of your sack of guts).  In the Rice experiments (involving mice, of course) the drug was IL-2, which stimulates the white blood cells to do their work.  In the research reported this method cured all of the mice with OVCA, and 7/8 of the little critters with colorectal cancer!  Damned promising beginnings, for sure.  Now to try it on people.  Keep your fingers crossed!

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-drug-factory-beads-can-wipe-out-some-cancers-in-mice 

PREVENTION?

                         Linda, me, Linda's nephew Eben, Linda's                                          mom Marion

As this article explains, in somewhat annoying detail, currently it is not possible to wholly prevent ovarian cancer, but it is possible to lessen one’s chance of contracting it.  I would add that actual total prevention is probably a pipe dream – although someday it may prove possible to tweak the immune system so as to enable it to prevent potential OVCA mutated cells from surviving.  The list of preventative measures is worth scanning, especially if you are new to this blog.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/can-you-prevent-ovarian-cancer#summary