Cancer Care

When she was a sophomore at Lakewood High School, Kincaid found out she had liver cancer. Doctors said she probably wouldn’t be able to play sports again. The news was devastating.

“I had never been sick and didn’t understand why this was happening to me, especially young as I was,” she said.

Kincaid has beat the odds in her battle with cancer. Through it all, she remained positive by going to schools and teaching children never to give up.
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Newswise — New research findings from a top clinical investigator at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) indicate the potential for more targeted treatment of ovarian cancer, which is expected to claim more than 15,000 lives nationwide this year, with 480 in New Jersey. The study, to be presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago later this month, looks at the effects of a mineral called selenium in combination with the standard treatment for the disease. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
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I am grateful for the front-page article regarding ovarian cancer [May 11, “Rare, But Deadly”]. This disease deserves more attention and research.

Despite my abnormal ultrasound, four doctors told me ovarian cancer is rare and that I was too young to have it. A procedure was done to break up a seemingly benign cyst. Because it was really cancer, this resulted in it spreading microscopically throughout me. (more…)

OVARIAN cysts are among the most frequent tumours in a woman’s body. It is believed that probably every woman at one time or the other has had a small cyst on the ovary which may disappear spontaneously.

These are of no particular consequences but when an ovarian cyst becomes large and causes distension of the abdomen and pressure on organs like bladder or rectum, then there should be no hesitation in removing it. Cancer may sometimes develop in the wall of an ovarian cyst, and may then spread to other nearby organs, leading to the obstruction of the bowel. Although ovarian cysts are usually benign, but most doctors feel that it should be removed by surgery without any delay.
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Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl is has one woman’s story of beating the odds.

It’s all about early detection and now the University of Pennsylvania has a new ovarian cancer center, looking for better screenings, currently there isn’t one.

For now it’s often about getting lucky.
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It is called personalized medicine; using genes to choose the right therapy for cancer.

There was a time when cancer was viewed as almost one disease that somehow needed to be cured with a magic bullet.

Over the years we have learned that there are many types of cancer that develop in dozens of different ways. If you really look at it, cancer is a word that describes cells in the body growing out of control.

Scientists have realized this and they are trying to find ways to attack cancer in an individual way, according to researchers presenting their findings at the American Association for Cancer Research.

The next step in treatment is manipulating genes to attack the cancer. The technique is already being used in breast, ovarian and lung cancer.

source : www.kyw1060.com

Researchers at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute describe in this week’s issue of Science a new candidate breast-cancer susceptibility gene. The Rap80 gene is required for the normal DNA-repair function of the well-known breast cancer gene BRCA1.

Cancer-causing mutations in the BRCA1 protein cause it to fail to bind to the Rap80 protein. Consequently, BRCA1 is unable to identify DNA damage sites in the genome. When BRCA1 fails to fix DNA damage, cancer-causing mutations accumulate, spawning the development of breast and ovarian malignancies.
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Since being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001, Eleanor Pakosz of Middlesex has tried five chemotherapy drugs. None has stopped the disease from advancing.

Two additional tumors — one in her pelvis and the other near her liver — recently were discovered, Pakosz’s doctor said, making her prognosis bleak.
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