Hide and Seek
WCP focuses new research on elusive ovarian cancer
By Richard Saltus
Infusion nurse Cherilyn Manzi, RN, BSN, (right) has been at Clare Matthews' side through all her chemotherapy treatments, creating a comforting bond.
Through the years, the cancer battle has witnessed hard-won gains—once usually lethal, now mostly curable. While the road ahead is long, researchers are optimistic that many cancers will be tamed through prevention, improved detection, and combinations of new drugs aimed at tumors with pinpoint accuracy.
There's an urgent need for progress in ovarian cancer, one of the stealthiest of malignancies, which is difficult to detect in early stages and hard to defeat once it has spread. Researchers don't see any magic bullet on the horizon, but, says Ursula Matulonis, MD, of the Women's Cancers Program (WCP) at Dana-Farber, "I think this is a curable cancer; eventually we will do a much better job."
WCP researchers are attacking ovarian cancer on many fronts. New gene and protein technologies are being used to develop accurate early diagnostic tests. Scientists are tracing the faulty "wiring" that turns ovarian cells cancerous and are seeking better ways of detecting changes that lead to cancer. They're testing new treatments such as therapeutic vaccines, and they're attempting to expand what's known about reducing ovarian cancer risk.
"The mission is to address the full range of detection, prevention, and treatment of ovarian cancer," says Daniel Cramer, MD, a gynecologist at DFCI and researcher at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center.
Dr. Cramer is the principal investigator on a new federal grant, known as a SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence), awarded in July to the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center to support collaborative research aimed at improving the outlook for ovarian cancer patients. DF/HCC—one of five ovarian cancer SPORE recipients in the nation—will receive $11 million over the next four-and-a-half years to finance the projects.
Though ovarian cancer is significantly less common than breast cancer—25,580 cases expected in 2004 vs. 215,990 cases—it is more lethal. The American Cancer Society expects 16,090 deaths in 2004, compared with 39,800 from breast cancer. A woman's lifetime danger of ovarian cancer is 1 in 70, much less than her one-in-eight risk for breast cancer, and most of the risk comes at later ages — half of all women diagnosed are over 65—though it can strike as young as the 20s. The one glaring statistic that scientists are determined to raise is 37 percent— the five-year survival rate for all stages of ovarian cancer. Since five-year survival is 90 percent when the tumor is confined to the ovary, better detection would improve the overall cure rate.
Statistics tell one kind of story, but the challenges facing an individual patient with ovarian cancer give a more vivid tale. The journey of Clare Matthews over the past several years illustrates a typical experience and the strategies that WCP researchers are deploying to fight the formidable disease.
