Ovarian Cancer Modulator

[Whippit]

I've just heard the news that my oncology unit is installing an Ovarian Cancer Modulator.

I looked up the definition on Google and found the following extract:

Ovarian cancer is the number one cause of death from gynecologic malignancy. A defective p53 pathway is a hallmark of ovarian carcinoma. The p53 mutation correlates significantly with resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy, early relapse and shortened overall survival in ovarian cancer patients. PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis), a BH3-only Bcl-2 family protein, was recently identified as a transcriptional target of p53 and a potent apoptosis inducer in various cancer cells.

Looks like we should all be asking exactly what this is and if it's going to help us whether our local units have one of these beasts installed.

[dee61]

Hi Whippit,

All these terms is gobbledyguck to me but if it helps our local teams to detect quicker than yes I agree.

Wxx

[Whippit in reply to dee61]

Dear Win, well it's at least worth asking what it is. Apparently this thing has to be sunk into a concrete bunker. I hadn't heard of it till this morning so I was hoping someone on this site could shed some light on what it is. xxx

[Hidden]

HI Annie

It sounds promising. What is a transcriptional target?

Monique x

[Whippit in reply to Hidden]

Dear Monique,

Seems like a good question to your oncologist. I haven't the foggiest. I should have referenced the article so you could have attempted to make sense of it. If I find more I'll post later. xx

[Hidden]

Thank you Annie,

I don't think my cancer is familial though, but very interesting love x G x

[Whippit in reply to Hidden]

Dear Gwyn, I don't think this is anything to do with BRAC1 or 2 cases. It seemed tome that we all share a defective p53 pathway. I'm struggling a bit but still researching and reading to try to fathom what it means to us. xx

[Hidden in reply to Whippit]

I am probably wrong as I was struggling to get my head around it ....but I thought I read about it being an hereditary or familial gene...love x G x

[Hidden]

Thankyou Annie for giving us another avenue to investigate.

I have a meeting with the Genetic team next week as my sister died from OV cancer at 37 and my brother has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. My grandmother may have died from ov cancer too

Hope you are ok.

Love Suex

[Whippit]

Dear Sue, it does seem possible that you may have the BRAC1 or 2 gene as so many of your family have been lost to related cancers. Apparently that offers the hope of PARP inhibitors which seem to be an effective treatment. I've had genetic testing as my sister had breast cancer at the age of 27 and has survived 2 other aggressive cancers since then - she's still going strong at the age of 64! I tested negative for the BRAC gene but the good thing about having been through this is that my daughters will both be offered tests for Ovarian Cancer from the age of 40.

I am OK. I'm up for my nine month check this month and feel fit and well so I'm not worrying about it. It is a 'head in the sand' strategy but why worry about something before it's happened.

Love to you x Annie xxx

[Whippit]

Dear all,

I should have referenced the webpages from my Google search of Ovarian Cancer Modulator. The extract above is from the following site: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

I'm on the 'teenth' reading of it. Between us all we might make sense of it all! xx Annie

[MargaretJ]

Hi Annie

I recognise some of the terms from the articles I have been reading on Metformin! Will google it myself and ask my Gynae about it when I see him in Nov!

My lovely son came to stay the night so I need to get up and get him breakfast!

Love M xxx

[Flower19]

Hi I have followed your post a lot an really find them interesting, an formative my mum has been diagnosed with stage 3c oc , she starts chemotherapy on Friday I noticed it said ids pathway on her notes , do you know what this means ? Hope you don't mind me asking you but I have found your posts really helpful many thanks xxx

[Hidden]

I suspect this may all be a bit of wild goose chase! And we could all become very annoying to our treatment teams if we don't know the question we are asking! And if they're as overloaded as mine is at the moment, we don't want to do that!

NB I don't really understand this either and am not a scientist.

Modulation is a process and could possibly apply to a whole range of things, not just P53.

Nevertheless, it's clearish what P53 is, and that manipulation of it crops up in articles about a wide range of cancers. I suppose it would fall within "targeted" approaches to cancer cells.

nature.com/scitable/topicpa...

It might be helpful for Annie to find out from her unit what they were talking about and what it's designed to do.

If they were talking about some piece of lab equipment/kit which would somehow enable some sort of identification of something, or kit which allowed the genetic manipulation of this not working properly tumour suppressor gene or something similar. Or some new treatment....

Clear as mud start to the day.......!

[Whippit]

Wow it's 3 years ago since I posted this. I still don't know any more about the topic, and don't know what an IDS pathway is either.

Flower, I hope you ask your clinician what an IDS pathway is and share with us here. I googled it and it came up with a NICE document on Avastin.

sending love to everyone. xx Annie

[Flower19 in reply to Whippit]

Thankyou for replying to me , I will ask on Friday when we go for the chemotherapy many thanks x

[thomas62]

Hi Whippet,

Good investigating! I recently had a P53 gene/protein test done. The gene was ok but a little problem with the P53 protein. I'm still not sure what this all means though!!

Gwen