• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 31, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Hormonal maintenance therapy may improve survival in women with chemo-resistant rare ovarian or peri

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 21, 2017
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: MD Anderson Cancer Center

For women with a rare subtype of epithelial ovarian or peritoneum cancer, known as low-grade serous carcinoma (LGSC), hormone maintenance therapy (HMT) may significantly improve survival, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and has been updated since it was first presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

According to the researchers, LGSC accounts for just 10 percent of serous carcinomas of the ovary/peritoneum. It is typically diagnosed in women, as early as in their 40s and 50s (however, teenagers and women in their 20s and 30s also may be diagnosed). Patients usually present with advanced disease.

MD Anderson has a long history of discovery in this field of rare ovarian cancer — publishing a study in 2004 that changed the way serous carcinomas were graded and thereby identifying LGSC. MD Anderson research also showed that LGSC is relatively chemo-resistant compared with high-grade serous carcinoma, said David M. Gershenson, M.D., professor, Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine.

Should this new retrospective data be validated in a randomized study, the findings could one day represent a significant improvement to frontline standard of care.

"There is a true unmet need for these patients — roughly 70 percent of women with this disease will experience a recurrence of the cancer at some point," said Gershenson, the study's corresponding author. "Our group published research demonstrating that hormonal therapy showed promise in the recurrent setting, with most patients responding or having stable disease. It was a natural progression over time that we began to study this up front, after women received their primary chemotherapy."

In this retrospective cohort study, researchers analyzed data from 203 women with Stage II-IV LGSC treated at MD Anderson between 1981 and 2013 to evaluate the effect of HMT, compared with surveillance, after surgery and chemotherapy. Women who received HMT (70 patients) showed an average progression-free survival (PFS) of 64.9 months compared with 26.4 months for those in the surveillance group (133 patients). Overall survival (OS) was 115.7 months following HMT, versus 102.7 months for the surveillance group.

Further, among 149 women who showed no evidence of disease following completion of primary chemotherapy, HMT appears to have resulted in even greater survival: 81.1 vs. 30 months PFS; and 191.3 vs.106.8 months OS.

"Hormonal therapy has shown promising results in reducing cancer recurrence, and there is increasing interest in integrating this approach into first-line therapy," said Gershenson. "If confirmatory research in a clinical trial setting shows hormonal maintenance therapy can prevent or delay recurrence of this cancer subtype, it would be practice changing."

Though recruitment for this patient population is challenging given the rarity of the disease, Gershenson noted that a prospective international Phase III clinical trial has been designed. The study will compare: chemotherapy and observation; chemotherapy and HMT; and hormonal therapy alone, which also has shown early promise in other studies.

###

In addition to Gershenson, authors on the all-MD Anderson study include: Diane Bodurka, M.D., Robert L. Coleman, M.D., Karen H. Lu, M.D., chair; and Charlotte Sun, all of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine; and Anais Malpica, M.D., of Pathology.

The study was supported by the Sara Brown Musselman Fund for Serous Ovarian Cancer Research and the MD Anderson Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute (No. P30 CA016672).

Media Contact

Laura Sussman
[email protected]
713-745-2457
@mdandersonnews

http://www.mdanderson.org

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Researchers Discover Novel Energy Potential in Iron-Based Materials

October 31, 2025

Impact of Childhood Trauma on Autistic Youth Health

October 31, 2025

UCSB Experimentalists Awarded Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grants to Propel New Insights and Innovations

October 30, 2025

Meerkats Gain Health Benefits Through Group Membership

October 30, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1292 shares
    Share 516 Tweet 323
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    202 shares
    Share 81 Tweet 51
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    136 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Researchers Discover Novel Energy Potential in Iron-Based Materials

Impact of Childhood Trauma on Autistic Youth Health

UCSB Experimentalists Awarded Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grants to Propel New Insights and Innovations

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.