For ovarian cancer

Surgery is the primary treatment intervention for ovarian cancer. 

Serum cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) is the most extensively evaluated tumor marker for ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, the CA-125 determination is non-specific, and elevated levels can be associated with a number of other gynecologic and gastrointestinal diseases. CA-125 levels in a woman without ovarian cancer, though, are static or tend to decrease over time, whereas levels associated with malignancy will continue to rise.10 Since CA-125 is a non-specific marker, there is no standard recommendation for routine screening for prevention of ovarian cancer. 

Recently, Polychronopoulou45 examined tobacco, ethanol, and coffee as risk factors for ovarian cancer in Greek women in a hospital-based case-control study with data collected from 1989 to 1991. Cases were 189 women who were residents of Greater Athens and less than 75 years old with histologically confirmed common malignant epithelial tumors of the ovary. Controls were female residents of Greater Athens, less than 75... 

Polychronopoulou, A., Reproductive variables, tobacco, ethanol, coffee and somatometry as risk factors for ovarian cancer, Int J Cancer, 55, 402, 1993. 

CA 125 is a mucin-like glycoprotein antigenic determinant expressed on the surface of coelomic epithelium and human ovarian carcinoma cells however, it does not appear to be specific for ovarian cancer because elevated levels have been reported in breast and colorectal cancers. Studies have shown increased CA 125 levels in patients with ovarian cancer, whereas decreased CA 125 levels in chemotherapy are associated with improved possibility for survival. Some studies have shown failure of CA 125 levels to return to normal after chemotherapy, indicating... 

A 4.5-year-old female treated for ovarian cancer develops difficulty hearing. Which of the following agents most likely caused these findings ... 

Paclitaxel (Taxol, Bristol-Myers Squibb) is a chemotherapy drug for ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and certain lung cancers. It was discovered by the US National Cancer Institute in the 1960s. Originally, it was extracted from the bark of the North American yew tree (Taxus brevifo-lia). Clinical tests had necessitated the harvesting of the bark, and this method damaged the trees irreversibly. 

Luo LY, Katsaros D, Scorilas A, et al. The serum concentration of human kallikrein 10 represents a novel biomarker for ovarian cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Cancer Res 2003 63 807-811. 

Conrads TP, Fusaro VA, Ross S, et al. High-resolution serum proteomic features for ovarian cancer detection. Endocr Relat Cancer 2004 11(2) 163 178. 

Cohen LS, Escobar PF, Scharm C, Glimco B, Fishman DA. Three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound improves the diagnostic accuracy for ovarian cancer prediction. Gynecol Oncol 2001 82(l) 40-48. 

Pharmacokinetics Cisplatin and carboplatin are administered IV in saline solution they can also be given intraperitoneally for ovarian cancer. Over 90% of cisplatin is bound to serum proteins. Highest concentrations are found in liver, kidney, intestinal, testicular and ovarian cells, but little penetrates into the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). The renal route is the main avenue for excretion. 

Conjugation of a DNA/PEI or DNA/PEI-PEG polyplex to targeting moieties such as antibodies to surface antigens like HER2 for breast cancer and OA3 for ovarian cancer has been shown to increase the transfection efficiency in vitro (50,51). PEI can also be lined with amphipathic peptides in order to facilitate cell entry in vivo. PEI coated with the KALA (WEAK-LAKALAKALAKHLAKALAKALKACEA) peptide has been shown to have higher transfection efficiency in a murine model than plain PEI or a commercial liposome (52). 

Robertson, D.M., Stephenson, T., Cahir, N. et al Development of an inhibin snbnnit ELISA with broad specificity. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 180,79-86, 2001 Robertson, D.M., Stephenson, T., Prnysers, E. et al., Inhibins/activins as diagnostic markers for ovarian cancers. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 191, 97-103, 2002 Khosravi, J., Krishna, R.G., Khaja, N., Bodani, U., and Diamandi, A., Enzyme-linked immnnosorbent assay of total inhibin direct determination based on inhibin subunit-specific monoclonal antibodies, Clin. Biochem. 37, 370-376, 2004 Cook, R.W., Thompson, T.B., Jardtzky, T.S., and Woodruff, T.K., Molecular biology of inhibin action, Semin. Reprod. Med. 22, 269-276, 2004. 

A 61-year-old woman taking amitriptyline 25 mg/day underwent oophorectomy for ovarian cancer under combined general and epidural lumbar anesthesia. After the administration of the local anesthetic she developed hypotension refractory to high doses of ephedrine and dopaminergic drugs. Control was achieved with noradrenaline 200 pg. 

The antiemetic effect of combined intravenous ondansetron 8 mg, oral dexamethasone 20 mg, and oral lorazepam 0.5 mg was significantly better than that of intravenous metoclopramide 10 mg, dexamethasone 20 mg, and oral lorazepam 0.5 mg in 30 patients receiving chemotherapy for ovarian cancer in a randomized trial (23). All the antiemetics were given 30 minutes before and 6 hours after chemotherapy. Significantly more patients given metoclopramide (40% versus 13%) complained of adverse effects. The most frequent adverse effects with both regimens were sedation and headache. 

Dercksen MW, Hoekman K, ten Bokkel Huinink WW, Rankin EM, Dubbelman R, van Tinteren H, Wagstaff J, Pinedo HM. Effects of interleukin-3 on myelosuppression induced by chemotherapy for ovarian cancer and small cell undifferentiated tumours. Br J Cancer 1993 68(5) 996-1003. 

Oosterom AT, Neijt JP, George M, Guastalla JP, Veenhof CH, Rotmensz N, Dalesio O, Vermorken JB. Carboplatin in combination therapy for ovarian cancer. Cancer Treat Rev 1988 15(Suppl B) 9-15. 

Travis LB, Holowaty EJ, Bergfeldt K, Lynch CF, Kohler BA, Wiklund T, Curtis RE, Hall P, Andersson M, Pukkala E, Sturgeon J, Stovall M. Risk of leukemia after platinum-based chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. N Engl J Med 1999 340(5) 351-7. 

A 45-year-old woman received topotecan and colony-stimulating factor for ovarian cancer and developed erythematous and slightly pruritic plaques on the upper and lower limbs and ear lobes about one week later (117). The lesions subsided spontaneously in about 10 days and recurred after the next dose. A skin biopsy showed neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis all skin cultures were negative. 

Ovarian cancer is asymptomatic in its early stages and usually goes undetected until well advanced and difficult to treat. Screening for ovarian cancer has not yet been shown to be effective, partly for want of a preoperative technique to confirm or exclude malignancy in suspicious lesions that are identified by the screening process. In vivo MRS may offer such a method by early confirmation of ovarian cancers in high-risk women (i.e. with a family history of the disease) in whom screening would be warranted. 

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