Developing a treatment for ovarian cancer

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is a really nasty disease. Although, like most cancers, it is curable if caught early enough, in practice it is not usually diagnosed until it is too late for curative treatment. It initially responds well to treatment and patients can go into remission for months or even years, but it usually returns and ultimately proves fatal. In this article, I describe a project I have been working on designing clinical trials with a high-tech immunological product, Cvac™, which uses modified autologous dendritic cells to prime the patient's immune system to attack ovarian cancer cells. We hope that Cvac™ will prolong the period of time in which women can remain in remission from ovarian cancer, but we will have to wait for the results of the clinical trials to know whether it does.

Keywords:

• Cancer
• Immunology
• Clinical trials
• Outcome measures

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Jacobs

Adam Jacobs is the director of Dianthus Medical Limited, a company providing medical writing, statistical consultancy, and data management services. He has a PhD in chemistry, an MSc in medical statistics, and is currently studying part time for a degree in economics. He was president of EMWA in 2004–2005.