Investigators at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have received a five-year, $11.5 million grant to translate research into treatments for women with ovarian cancer. Every year in the United States, more than 16,000 women die from the disease and another 22,000 are diagnosed, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award from the NCI is called a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant.

Tikcro Technologies (PK: TIKRF) announced that the United States (”US”) Department of Health and Human Services (”HHS”) has granted orphan drug status to BioCancell’s BC-819 drug, currently in Phase I/IIa clinical trials, for its use in treating ovarian cancer. Tikcro holds 36% of Biocancell (after conversion of notes and exercise of warrants), and 27% on a fully diluted basis.

Researchers warn in a study just published on bmj.com that many women with ovarian cancer can go undiagnosed for months because their symptoms are not always being investigated without delay. Three key symptoms associated with ovarian cancer are identified in the study. They should help clinicians decide whether to investigate further. However, one of these symptoms is not included in current guidance for urgent investigation.

Ovarian cancer rates have fallen by almost 20 per cent in a decade, according to Cancer Research UK today (Wednesday). Rates for women in their 50s and early 60s are nearly 20 per cent lower than they were in 1998. And for women under 50* rates are 14 per cent lower than they were at their peak in 1997.

Many women with ovarian cancer can go undiagnosed for months because their symptoms are not always being investigated promptly, warn researchers in a study published on bmj.com today. The study identifies three key symptoms associated with ovarian cancer that should help clinicians decide whether to investigate further. Yet one of these symptoms is not included in current guidance for urgent investigation.

Individuals of any age should make sure they are not at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency. The Alabama Department of Public Health joins the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations in urging awareness of this nutritional disorder. Low vitamin B12 levels occur among 1 in 31 adults 51 years of age and older. Vitamin B12 deficiency is simple to prevent and treat, but the signs and symptoms are easy to miss and are often overlooked.

A hysterectomy is an operation to take out the uterus (womb), and sometimes the cervix and other reproductive organs as well. When surgery does not involve removing the cervix, it may be referred to as a subtotal hysterectomy. A radical hysterectomy involves the surgical removal of the uterus, ovaries, cervix, oviducts, lymph nodes and lymph channels. In all cases, if the woman is pre-menopausal menstruation will stop and she will not be able to bear children.

Critical Outcome Technologies Inc. (COTI) (TSX VENTURE:COT) announced important positive results today from a series of experiments carried out at a prominent American cancer research facility. The experiments were designed; first, to estimate the oral maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for COTI-2; second, to evaluate the effectiveness of oral COTI-2 alone and third, to compare the effectiveness of oral COTI-2 plus Doxil® (doxorubicin HCl) to that of Doxil alone.

Premenopausal women with stage one ovarian cancer who have the cancerous ovary removed have the same five-year survival rates as women who have both ovaries removed, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Two University of Arizona researchers have formed a research team to design, build and evaluate two versions of an ovarian cancer medical imaging and screening instrument that will use holographic components in a new type of optical microscope. Raymond Kostuk and Jennifer Barton have secured a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to build the instrument that they hope will one day be used to monitor women at high risk for ovarian cancer.