A new gene has been discovered that makes women with ovarian cancer three times more resistant to the standard chemotherapy treatment using platinum-based drugs such as carboplatin and paclitaxel than women without this gene mutation. This harbors bold new meanings for women who are diagnosed with the cancer because once a woman is diagnosed, she must then get further tested to see if the modern platinum-based chemotherapy treatments will even help against her ovarian cancer.
Although this may seem like just bad news, it actually can bring better choices for women with this genetic mutation, they can opt to have surgical intervention before they begin their chemo which would be the best course of action in their case. In addition, if they are identified with this gene mutation they can decide to completely bypass the majorly used platinum-based chemo drugs and look for other alternatives right away, saving them precious time and useless harm to their body.
image link: healblog.net
article link: http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/05/a-genetic-test-identifies-chemo-resistant-ovarian-cancers/#more-48311
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