Ovarian Cancer

The cancer drug Avastin extends progression-free survival by 39% in ovarian cancer patients, a significant improvement in a cancer that has proved extremely difficult to treat. Some oncologists are already using Avastin — which is widely and successfully used for lung, colon and breast tumors — to treat ovarian cancer that has recurred, but such use has never been formally studied. The new study, reported Sunday at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, is also the first to use the drug as first-line therapy for ovarian cancer.

Genetic testing to check if a woman has the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations can be a useful tool for preventing breast cancer and ovarian cancer in some cases.  But doctors might not be referring patients for such services appropriately, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sent out a survey to 3,200 family and internal medicine practitioners and obstetrician/gynecologists across the U.S.  They found that physicians may not recommend screening often enough in women at high risk for breast and ovarian cancers (who, guidelines stipulate, generally should be offered such services)

The widely used cancer drug Avastin may benefit women with ovarian cancer, both those who are newly diagnosed and those in whom the disease has recurred after initial treatment, researchers reported Saturday at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. For ovarian cancers treated early in the course of the disease, the drug reduced the risk of death. For recurrent cancers, the drug delayed progression but the improvement in survival did not quite reach statistical significance, researchers said.

Avastin can stabilize tumors in women suffering from advanced-stage ovarian cancer, extending the period before the disease worsens by more than 3.5 months, according to the results of two large, international clinical trials conducted by separate research teams. The findings, published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, come less than a week after the European Commission approved Avastin for treating women newly diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. The drug, known generically as bevacizumab, has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat ovarian cancer in the U.S. Though Avastin has not been shown to prolong the lives of women with ovarian cancer and does come with significant side effects, it offers some hope for treating what remains the deadliest of gynecologic cancers, researchers said.

Researchers have taken a small but potentially significant step toward early detection of ovarian cancer, a deadly disease often diagnosed too late for effective treatment. Various cancer "biomarkers" show up in blood tests long before symptoms occur but aren't accurately predictive until later, when tumors probably have reached an advanced stage, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found. The study, published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was headed by Garnet Anderson and Nicole Urban of the Hutchinson center's Division of Public Health Sciences.

Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, agreed to buy Micromet Inc. in a $1.16 billion deal to gain an experimental leukemia drug. Investors of Micromet, based in Rockville, Maryland, will get $11 a share, the companies said in a statement today. The acquisition will give Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen the compound blinatumomab, being tested against two blood cancers, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. While Amgen spends $2.7 billion a year on research and development, the company has "a fairly empty pipeline" and needs to acquire to gain promising new products, said Geoffrey Porges, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein in New York.

Women with early ovarian cancer who receive expert care have a much better chance of surviving than previously thought, the largest study of the disease so far has concluded. Ovarian cancer patients whose tumor is found early apparently can also avoid chemotherapy after surgical removal of their tumors without reducing their chances of survival, the study found. The results "finally give us the handle that we've needed in treating early stage ovarian cancer," said Dr.

To raise funds for research and education, the Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Southern California will hold a 3K-5K run/walk on Sunday at CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City. Registration at 7 a.m.; run at 8:30 a.m.; walk at 9 a.m. $15 preregistration; then $17. (818) 985-0288 or www.ovariancancercalifornia.com.