Ovarian Cancer

We, along with you, have been waiting for an update on Gayane Tovmasyan, the 13 year old Armenian girl with the ovarian tumor. Your kindness has been overwhelming.

On behalf of eMaxHealth.com and the family, we would like to express our sincere thanks to you all. The total raised for her care is at $928. The funds will be transferred to her parents. The account opened in Gayane’s name will be open for another week or so if anyone would like to donate to offset costs incurred by the family related to her recovery and follow-up care. Documentation is available upon request.

The biology of ovarian cancers discovered at an early stage may render them slower growing and less likely to spread than more aggressive cancers, which typically are discovered in an advanced stage, according to a study led by investigators in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This finding has implications for the question of whether screening for ovarian cancer could save lives.

Gayane was born in 1995 in Armenia where she still lives with her family in the remote village of Davtashen. She has been diagnosed with an ovarian tumor which has grown so large the doctors say they will need to remove all her reproductive organs. The surgery is scheduled for this week at the Armenian National Center of Oncology in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital.

The early detection of ovarian cancer is still possible when the treatment can still be provided for the disease, indicate the preliminary results from a large, continuing trial study . Currently only about one fourth of invasive ovarian cancer is found early.

Symptoms in ovarian cancer, such as bloating, are insidious and frequently ignored or attributed to weight gain or irritable bowel syndrome. For this reason, many women with ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until their conditions are advanced and much more likely to be resistant to treatment. With greater awareness of the warning signs and symptoms in women with ovarian cancer for both patients and health care professionals, women could be diagnosed in the early stages of disease.

Findings from a newly published study should reassure women and their doctors. The study found little association between the use of infertility drugs like Clomid and ovarian cancer.

The study appears in the latest issue of the journal BMJ Online First. The researchers followed 18,970 women who had invitro fertilization (IVF) procedures from 1983 to 1995, and 7,536 subfertile women evaluated from 1980 to 1995 but who did no undergo ovarian stimulation.

According to the results of a new study published in BMJ, there is no convincing association between ovarian cancer and fertility drugs.

Concerns about hormones taken to increase fertility in women have persisted for several decades. Past studies linking fertility drugs to ovarian cancer have been conflicting.

Obese and non-obese ovarian cancer patients have the same overall survival rates.

Obesity affects health in several ways, but new research shows obesity can have minimal impact on ovarian cancer survival. A study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center found ovarian cancer survival rates are the same for obese and non-obese women if their chemotherapy doses are closely matched to individual weight.

Results of a phase III, international randomized clinical trial demonstrate a new standard of care for treatment of advanced ovarian cancer that significantly reduces side-effects and post-operative deaths compared to the previously established treatment course. The study, presented at the 12th Biennial Meeting of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) in Bangkok in October, has a major impact on many countries where the new standard represents a more practical course of treatment.

A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.