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NI Mum Diagnosed With Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer First Thought To Be A Cyst
A Lisburn woman has opened up about her "traumatic" health ordeal which saw her receiving the news of a cancer diagnosis.
Clare Byrne is currently awaiting further treatment after she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. The 55-year-old began to feel discomfort a number of years ago, but said it took her to "fight tooth and nail" to get to where she is today.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Clare said her health problems began in May of 2022, when she suffered with severe stomach pains.
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"I went to the doctors where my tummy was checked over and I had blood tests carried out," she said.
"The doctors phoned me about a week later to say there was an infection in my right ovary. It was red flagged, but I wasn't seen until July 11. When I did go for my appointment, I was examined internally, and told that there was a small cyst on my ovary, but nothing to worry about. It was the size if a walnut at this point. From there, I was noticing more and more discomfort and I had to go back again to the doctors on September 6, but I felt like I was getting nowhere.
"The pain was so intense, and I was going back and forth to appointments. I went to my local MP Robbie Butler, who wrote five letters, and after those letters, I finally got a date in November for more examinations. It was then, that the staff could see that it was getting bigger, and that it would need to be removed through an operation. I was overweight, so they couldn't do keyhole surgery at that time.
"In the new year, I was getting pain which was severe. Back and forth to appointments, I was just in so much pain. It was in May then, of 2023, that I had a MRI carried out, which showed that the cyst was growing. From there, the whole year of 2023, I was getting scans, and tests. In February of 2024, I was due to get surgery and just before I was going to theatre, the anaesthetist came up and spoke to me.
Clare says she is trying to be positive"He said after reading my files, he was advising not to operate at that stage. From there, I was in and out again, with the pain. In April, I was admitted to hospital and after a CT scan, the cyst was measuring at 20cm. In a month, it had grown by a further 2cm."
Clare said she then noticed new symptoms, including passing dark blood when going to the bathroom. She said it was so bad, her toilet bowl would be full of blood after bowel movements.
"I couldn't go on like this any more," she added.
"I was just in so much pain. I was brought into hospital then on August 27, 2024, for surgery. I ended up having a full hysterectomy. I had a stoma bag put in. I was opened up from down below, right up to my breast bone, with 30 staples in me. It wasn't a cyst, it was tumours all over me. I had a 12cm tumour, wrapped around my colon. It is really traumatising to think about it.
"After all I had gone through, on September 23, 2024, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was stage 3. I am scheduled for chemotherapy next week, and I just want to be open about this, for other women to be aware too, because ovarian cancer can be a silent killer."
On Friday night, Clare's son Adam, who is a local comedian, will host a fundraising event for Macmillan Cancer, who has been there for Clare, since her devastating diagnosis. Their staff have helped in more ways than the family say they'll ever be able to thank them for - including helping with finances for heating oil.
The fundraising night will take place in the Beehive Bar, on the Falls, and will see a host of talented individuals, including Shane Todd, take to the stage, all for a worthy cause.
Banner for the event on FridayAdam told Belfast Live: "I have been doing stand-up comedy for the last two and a half years, and by no way am I saying I am famous, but I do have a bit of a platform to be able to raise awareness for ovarian cancer, after seeing what mum went through.
"I want to be able to raise money for this charity, because they are brilliant. I think laughter is the best medicine sometimes, and our family has tried to stay as positive as possible throughout all of this. My mum is always there for me, and has gone to all of my gigs. I want to do this one for her.
"Life can be really terrible, but if we can bring a bit of laughter about, then we want to help people take their minds of whatever they are going through. I can't thank people enough for the support so far, and really look forward to Friday night, it'll be brilliant!"
Please click here for ticket details. Visit this link for more information on Macmillan Cancer, and follow here for symptoms and help in relation to Ovarian Cancer.
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UI Is Crafting A New Drug To Treat Ovarian Cancer
Iowa City, Iowa — University of Iowa researchers have landed a ten-million-dollar federal grant to develop a new treatment for ovarian cancer.
Jill Kolesar , dean of the UI College of Pharmacy, is working on a drug that will make ovarian tumors more sensitive to immunotherapy by helping the immune system recognize cells around them. Kolesar says this could bring ovarian cancer treatment into the 21st century.
It's estimated more than 12 thousand women nationwide will die from ovarian cancer this year, according to federal data. Kolesar says ovarian cancer is often diagnosed in the late stages.
She says the cancer is also often made of cells that hide from the immune system, making it hard to target and nearly always fatal. The grant comes from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
European Commission Approves Mirvetuximab Soravtansine For FRα+ Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer
The European Commission has approved mirvetuximab soravtansine for select patients with pretreated folate receptor–alpha (FRα)-positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
This article was originally published on OncLive® and has been lightly edited.
The European Commission has granted marketing authorization to mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx (Elahere) for the treatment of adult patients with folate receptor–alpha (FRα)-positive, platinum-resistant, high-grade serous epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who have received between 1 and 3 prior systemic treatments.1
The authorization was based on data from the global phase 3 MIRASOL trial (NCT04209855), in which treatment with mirvetuximab soravtansine led to a 35% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death and a 33% reduction in the risk of death vs chemotherapy (HR for progression-free survival [PFS], 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52-0.81; P < .0001; HR for overall survival [OS], 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50-0.89; P = .0046).
With this authorization, mirvetuximab soravtansine has become the first and only FRα-directed antibody-drug conjugate to receive approval in the European Union (EU), as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Northern Ireland.
The European Commission has approved mirvetuximab soravtansine for select patients with pretreated folate receptor–alpha (FRα)-positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.Image Credit: Andrzej - stock.Adobe.Com
"It's been 10 years since a new treatment for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer was approved in the EU, and now oncologists have an effective, new, targeted treatment option for these patients," Toon Van Gorp, MD, professor of gynecological oncology at the University of Leuven in Belgium, said in a news release.
In March 2024, the FDA granted regular approval to mirvetuximab soravtansine for use in the same indication based on the same dataset from MIRASOL.2
MIRASOL is a global, phase 3 open-label, randomized, controlled trial that randomly assigned 453 patients to receive mirvetuximab soravtansine or investigator's choice of single-agent chemotherapy consisting of either weekly paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or topotecan.1 Eligible patients had platinum-resistant, high-grade serous ovarian cancer with tumors expressing high levels of FRα (≥ 75% of cells with ≥ 2+ staining intensity), confirmed with the VENTANA FOLR1 (FOLR1-2.1) RxDx Assay. Patients had previously received 1 to 3 prior lines of therapy.
The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed PFS. Key secondary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR) and OS.
Additional efficacy results published in The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that patients treated with mirvetuximab soravtansine experienced a median PFS of 5.62 months (95% CI, 4.34-5.95) vs 3.98 months (95% CI, 2.86-4.47) with chemotherapy (P < .001).3 Moreover, the median OS was 16.46 months (95% CI, 14.46-24.57) vs 12.75 months (95% CI, 10.91-14.36), respectively. The ORR was 42.3% (95% CI, 35.8%-49.0%) in the mirvetuximab soravtansine arm vs 15.9% (95% CI, 11.4%-21.4%) in the chemotherapy arm (odds ratio, 3.81; 95% CI, 2.44-5.94; P < .001).
"Ovarian cancer can be devastating, taking women away from precious moments with their family, disrupting careers and the many other important contributions that women make to society," Clara Mackay, chief executive officer of World Ovarian Cancer Coalition, added in the news release.1 "In Europe, ovarian cancer is 3 times more deadly than breast cancer, and having new innovative options allows us to work toward a world where everyone living with ovarian cancer has the best chance of survival and the best quality of life possible, no matter where they live."
Regarding the agent's safety profile, the most frequent adverse effects (AEs) were blurred vision, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pain, keratopathy, dry eye, constipation, vomiting, decreased appetite, peripheral neuropathy, headache, asthenia, increased aspartate aminotransferase, and arthralgia. The most common serious AE was pneumonitis. Notably, fewer grade 3 or higher AEs were reported with mirvetuximab soravtansine (41.7%) vs chemotherapy (54.1%), as were fewer serious AEs of any grade (23.9% vs 32.9%) and fewer events leading to discontinuation (9.2% vs 15.9%).3
"The approval of [mirvetuximab soravtansine] by the European Commission provides a much-needed clinically meaningful option for patients who receive the heartbreaking news their ovarian cancer has returned, fearing what's next in their treatment journey after they've developed platinum-resistance," Roopal Thakkar, MD, executive vice president of research and development and chief scientific officer of AbbVie, concluded in the news release.1
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