Discovery Promising Treatment For Late – Stage Ovarian Cancer

A promising treatment for late – stage ovarian cancer has been discovered by researchers at the University of Guelph. A peptide that shrinks advanced tumors can greatly improve cancer survival rate and can be the much awaited cure for ovarian cancer in its late stage.

Jim Petrik, a professor in the University of Guelph Department of Biomedical Sciences is the author of the research along with student Nicole Campbell. Findings of this important research will appear in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics latest edition which is published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

Ovarian cancer is considered the most lethal form of cancer that can be undetected until it is in its late stage making treatment impossible and survival rate very poor. This “silent killer” can have early symptoms like abdominal pain, irregularities in menstrual cycles, nausea, vomiting and bloating that can attributed to another illness.

Petrik and Campbell have discovered a peptide called ABT – 898 which is derived from the thrombospondin molecule that can significantly shrink late stage tumors in mouse subjects with ovarian cancer. The tumor is reduced to size but keeps the neighboring cells intact and healthy. Authors of the study further explained that large late stage tumors may not even respond to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy relies on blood vessels to deliver medications which may be impossible to abnormal blood vessels found around tumors. The new peptide treatment allows better delivery of chemotherapy drugs inside the tumor itself bypassing the blood vessels.

With a better drug delivery system, toxic chemotherapy drugs may be administered in small amounts; patients may have decreased side effects due to therapy plus survival rate will be greatly improved. This new and amazing discovery will truly extend the life of many ovarian cancer sufferers all around the world.

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