Ovarian Cancer

They came wearing pink tutus, pink Converse sneakers, pink pashminas and pink hats. A fashionable crowd put on the pink Saturday night for Elyse Walker's 8th Annual Pink Party to raise money for the Cedars-Sinai women's cancer program. Hosted by actress Michelle Pfeiffer and Pacific Palisades boutique owner Elyse Walker, the night of fashion, fuchsia and fundraising resulted in channeling more than $1.6 million into the cancer program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute , bringing the cumulative fundraising revenue from eight years of the event to $7.8 million.

Kathy Bates has beaten cancer yet again, she revealed Wednesday. "Hey All, sorry for the long silence," she said in a two-part Twitter message. "I was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 months ago & am recovering from a double mastectomy. ... I don't miss my breasts as much as I miss Harry's Law. ;-) Thanks for all the sweet tweets. Y'all kept me going. " The "Titanic" actress was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, an experience she discussed in the video above, for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.

Kathie Lee Gifford is getting a lot of flak for asking Martin Short about his current relationship with his deceased wife - Short's wife, Nancie, died two years ago. Short is being championed for his smooth response and calm demeanor after the interview on Wednesday's "Today" show.  But here's to Kathy for tweeting her sincere apologies .  And so what if her tweet had an error. "I send my sincerest apologies to @MartinShort and his family.  He handled situation w/enormous grace and kindness and I'm so grateful," Gifford tweeted . One tweeter noted, "Dude ... that's not martin short's twitter.

Presidents, politicians and physicians are fighting over who should pay for contraception, and women are getting hurt in the process. Roman Catholic bishops reject even President Obama's recent compromise not requiring religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to pay for contraception, saying it does not meet their standard of "religious liberty and moral convictions. " Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards calls the row over insurance payments part of "a misleading and outrageous assault onwomen's health.

As many as one-third of women with ovarian cancer have high levels of platelets in their blood, which is linked to worse outcomes, researchers reported Wednesday. Platelets are components of cells that clump together to stop bleeding. Having an excessively high level of platelets is called thrombocytosis. Doctors have long known that thrombocytosis is associated with cancer. In the new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston analyzed data from 619 women with ovarian cancer.

Some members of the House and Senate are getting involved in the flap over the recent decision of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut back funding of Planned Parenthood. They're inviting colleagues to sign letters asking Komen to reconsider its stance and calling the organization out for being politically motivated. A news release from the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) says she and fellow Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have been joined by 24 of their colleagues in support of the letter, addressed to Komen founder and Chief Executive Nancy Brinker.

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.

Doctors and patients eager for better ways to treat advanced ovarian cancer were encouraged by two new studies showing that adding Avastin to traditional chemotherapy drugs allowed women with the disease to live a few months before their cancer returned or worsened. The two large , international studies credited Avastin with providing an additional 3.8 months and 3.6 months of “progression-free survival.” (The reports in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine weren't able to say whether the women who took Avastin lived longer overall.)

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.