Studies Show Promise In Fighting Ovarian Cancer

Researchers will soon begin testing a vaccine for a difficult and often deadly disease that gives women and their doctors limited options.

Ovarian cancer is often difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can be subtle and varied. They're often mistaken for other medical problems.

Doctors at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Ill., will soon try a new therapy -- a vaccine they hope will beat back, or even cure, ovarian cancer. Loyola University Medical Center plans a separate ovarian cancer vaccine study.
"We have some evidence in preliminary studies that have shown exciting results with the ovarian cancer vaccine. Those are in fact preliminary, but nonetheless they give us the enthusiasm to move forward," Dr. Edgar Staren with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America said. "This is a new frontier, we are only really scratching the surface."

Researchers will make the vaccine from a woman's own tumor tissue, to create a patient-specific treatment. The idea is to stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer.

"What we do is utilize the different antenna, if you will, the receptors on the surface of those ovarian cancer cells. We then administer that back in a new formation, to the patient, so they can make an immune response to the tumor," Staren said.

Using the immune system to fight cancer is not a new idea, but technology has advanced to the point where cancer vaccines show more promise than ever. Success in trials like this could lead to vaccines to treat other forms of cancer.

It's part of new thinking in cancer treatment, a shift to targeted therapies, and a move away from the "one drug treats all" approach.

"I think we're starting to see the tip of the iceberg, so it gives those of us that have been in this field for a long time a great deal of excitement," Staren said.

The vaccine will be given to women who have had a recurrence of their cancer, like 50-year-old Rose Ann Slota of Greendale.

First diagnosed in 2004, Slota's cancer has come back four times. She has survived four surgeries, a stem cell transplant and a stroke.

She is undergoing another round of chemotherapy and responding well to it.

"I'm getting a low dose of Taxol weekly," Slota said.

Slota's doctor has told her she's a candidate for the new vaccine.

"When you look at all your options, and you run out of treatments, and treatments aren't working anymore, you'll try anything. The vaccine is something I would definitely try," Slota said.

Until the vaccine proves itself, Slota faces an uncertain future. She is also thinking about the future of her daughter, Jennie.

Memories are important to Slota, and she's capturing them -- moment by moment, picture by picture -- in scrapbooks she's making for her husband and 8-year-old daughter.

"Some of the photos I have here are weddings we've attended, Mother's Day events, Santa Claus pictures," Slota said. "I think once you realize your time might be premature, it's a good thing to do."

In an upstairs closet are gifts she has purchased for Jennie, one gift for every birthday through age 21. Most are wrapped. Each will have a card with a special message from mom.

"Each time I give her a gift, it will be more meaningful. And then she has gifts for every year that I am not here," Slota said.

She is preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best.

"Something's going to come. Something's going to come our way. Maybe it will be this vaccine. We'll cure this; there'll be a cure someday," Slota said.