Empowered Patient Podcast Developing Treatment for Rare Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer with Nicole Andrews STAAR Ovarian Cancer Foundation and Dan Paterson Verastem Oncology
This is a conversation with Nicole Andrews, a patient with LGSOC and STAAR Ovarian Cancer Foundation Board Chairperson, and Dan Paterson, President and CEO of Verastem Oncology. Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is a rare and slow-growing ovarian cancer that is often misdiagnosed. Verastem Oncology is developing a targeted treatment for LGSOC and working with the STAAR Foundation to inform researchers about the disease and ways to improve treatments. Nicole was finally diagnosed with LGSOC after 18 months of unexplained symptoms, and her role at the STAAR Foundation is to raise awareness and funds to support research.
Nicole explains, "I have since learned that low-grade is difficult for pathologists who aren't used to seeing it and don't know the intricacies of diagnosing. My surgeon finally said I have to get this right because it changes treatment."
"So, she asked permission to send this to a specialty cancer center. And we did. Once that happened, they came back pretty quickly and said this was low-grade serous ovarian cancer. They were used to seeing it. They had high volume cases of reading pathology reports and, therefore, were able to diagnose and diagnose it."
Dan elaborates, "The majority of ovarian cancers are so-called high-grade, and that's when you hear about treatment with chemotherapies like platinum. A new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors came out in the last couple of years. And I think when you generally hear about ovarian, it's high grade. It was only in the last couple of years that the World Health Organization and, more recently, the FDA, based on some of our work, recognized it as a distinct and different disease because it acts very differently. It tends to occur in younger women, and it's slower growing, which, on the face of it, you would think is a good thing. And I think a lot of times, and we've heard anecdotes, and Nicole can probably speak to this, where women have said, oh, well, you have the good ovarian cancer. The downside of a slower-growing tumor is it's harder to treat."
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