Clearity Newsletter
March 2013
Greetings!  
In this newsletter you'll find some of the latest news at Clearity and a recap of last year's  accomplishments.
  • Wheel to Survive Dallas Makes a Triumphant Return in 2013
  • Founder Dr. Laura Shawver Interviewed on Feral Audio
  • Wine Tasting Dinner with Eddie Osterland
  • Wende Hutton Wins Julie Crawford's Quilt Raffle
  • 2012 Year in Review
In Clearity's most recent patient newsletter, Deb Zajchowski, Clearity's Scientific Director, discusses the importance of considering clinical trials early. 

Click here to read more. 

Wheel to Survive, Dallas 


"Seeing so many people unite to raise hope and find a cure for ovarian cancer is powerful, satisfying and undeniably essential to those of us who have survived this disease that is touching and taking the lives of moms, daughters, wives, friends and relatives," said Lynn Lentscher. "To be the catalyst in raising over $280,000 is thrilling and humbling," she said.    >> Full Article
Podcast Feral Radio's Matt Dwyer Gets a Lesson in Personalized Medicine

 

Clearity founder Laura Shawver, Ph.D. was interviewed by host Matt Dwyer to discuss the promise of individualized treatment for cancer and the history of The Clearity Foundation.  Don't be discouraged by Matt's off-color language in the introduction - as Dr. Shawver's comments are very educational!      >> Listen Here   

 

Wine Tasting Dinner with Eddie Osterland

 

In September, Mary and Chris Gluck, owners of The Wine Vault & Bistro hosted a fantastic fundraising event with outstanding wine and appetizers. The featured auction item was a wine pairing dinner for 8 hosted by Eddie Osterland, America's First Master Sommelier and nationally acclaimed speaker on food and wine, with food prepared by Lynne Thrope, a San Diego ovarian cancer survivor.   >> Full Article

Congratulations to Wende Hutton: Winner of Julie Crawford's Quilt! 

 

"I have watched brave women fight ovarian cancer," Wende said. "Fortunately, The Clearity Foundation is working to bring much-needed life-saving treatment options forward to ovarian cancer patients. My hope is that we see survival rates change significantly in the next five years."

Year in Review:  A Tally of Clearity's Impact in 2012

 

Patient Support

 

110 Tumor Blueprints: The Clearity Foundation provided 110 tumor blueprints and individual

 consultations to help women battling ovarian cancer with treatment decisions based on the characteristics of their cancers. Read more about the women that we have helped.

 

325 Tumor Profiles in the Diane Barton Database: 

We have compiled tumor profiling data and patient treatment information on 285 women, some of whom have been profiled more than once, during our four years supporting women with ovarian cancer. As we help more individual patients, we are continuing to expand the data in our Diane Barton Database, which may help to change clinical practice in the future. For instance, we used the database in a research study that demonstrated the importance of using tumor samples from the most recent recurrence for profiling. Our research findings were published in February of 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. 

 

25% Time Savings: The automation of the Clearity Profile reporting process that was led by Deb Zajchowski and facilitated by Annai Systems and Marc Whitlow, an applications development specialist and Clearity supporter, reduces the time it takes us to enter data and generate each patient tumor profile report. This is the first phase of an automation effort aimed at increasing our efficiency and our capacity to serve more women.

 

180+ Genes: In 2012, Clearity decided to enlarge its testing panel and engaged Foundation Medicine to use its gene sequencing approach to look for alterations in an additional 180+ genes that are predicted to make tumors responsive to new therapies being tested in clinical trials.  This will allow patients to find out if their tumor could be sensitive to a chemotherapy drug on the market, one of the ovarian cancer drugs currently being tested in clinical trials, or a combination of the two. As a result, Clearity is offering the most comprehensive molecular profile available to date. The aim is to give patients more treatment options that may lead to remission.

 

Public Awareness/Education  

  

203,000 People: The number of people who tuned in to Iowa Public Radio, which interviewed Clearity Foundation founder Laura Shawver on a September 24 show about ovarian cancer.

 

20 Patients and Advocates: Gynecologic Oncologist Bridgette Duggan, MD and ovarian cancer survivor Helen Gardner met with over 20 patients and advocates to discuss the importance of molecular profiling in recurrent ovarian cancer.  The roundtable was educational for the patients, and also allowed them to ask questions and receive answers from both the physician and patient's perspective.

 

8 City Council Members: In recognition of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, the San Diego City Council in September honored The Clearity Foundation's work to increase awareness of the disease and advance ovarian cancer research towards early diagnosis.

 

250 Attendees: Clearity's 3 personalized medicine events attracted more than 250 people to participate in community discussion about the challenges of making personalized medicine a reality.

 

2/28 Personalized Medicine is Failing: How Can We Make it Work?

Moderated by: David Nelson, PhD, Epic Sciences

Jamie Christensen, MD, Director of Translational Pharmacology Pfizer

Allen Fremont, MD, PhD, lung cancer survivor and Co-Director at California Comparative Effectiveness and Outcomes Improvement Center

Lisa Haile, PhD, JD, DLA Piper

 

5/22 Payers and Physicians: Help or a Hindrance in Bringing Personalized Medicine to Patients?

Moderated by: Michael Pollock, Reynolds Pollock & Assoc.

Bryan Dechairo, MD, Head of Extramural R&D, Medco Research Institute

Bridgette Duggan, MD, Oncologist, Southcoast Gynecologic Oncology

 

10/23 Technology Innovation is Paving the Way

Moderated by: David Nelson, PhD, Epic Sciences

Michael Pellini, MD, President & CEO, Foundation Medicine

Ronnie Andrews, President, Medical Sciences, Life Technologies

Peter Kuhn, PhD, Assoc. Professor, Scripps Research Institute

 

Clinical Education

 

3 Medical Conferences: Clearity leadership attended three major medical conferences and presented at The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and American Society of Clinical Oncology meetings.

The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO)

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

 

4 Publications/Presentations:

2/12 Treatment-related protein biomarker expression differs between primary and recurrent ovarian carcinomas. Zajchowski D.A., Karlan B.Y., Shawver L.K. in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics

6/12 Correlation of tumor profiling results with drug selection in ovarian cancer patients. Zajchowski D.A. and Shawver L.K. at ASCO.

6/12 Proliferation pathway aberration frequencies differ in BRCA1-and BRCA2-mutated ovarian cancers. Zajchowski D.A., Salamon H. and Yamaguchi K.D. at ASCO

6/12 PI3K Pathway Activation and Thromboembolism in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinomas. Diaz E., Fleming N., Nassanian H., Walts A.E., Zajchowski D., Orsulic S., Walsh C. at WAGO

 

Raising Awareness and Raising Support

 

$300,000: The amount raised by the first Wheel to Survive spin-a-thon fundraiser held in Dallas to benefit The Clearity Foundation and ovarian cancer research.

 

$60,000: Donors contributed to Clearity after biotech veteran Peter Johnson, a founder of Agouron Pharmaceuticals and Annai Systems, donated $30,000 to Clearity and challenged others to match it.

 

Thousands More Raised and Hundreds More Educated: Throughout 2012, board members, patients, families of patients and thousands of others whose lives are touched by ovarian cancer, or who want to change the one-size-fits-all mode of cancer treatment, helped to support The Clearity Foundation. These events included:

 

-      A poker tournament and educational forum

-      Participation in the America's Finest City Race

-      Fundraiser at The Wine Vault and Bistro

-      Art exhibit and fundraiser at the UCSD faculty club

-      Diane's Day at the David Barton Gym

-      The raffle of a quilt made for Clearity by Julie Crawford

-      The sale on Etsy of specially designed turquoise bracelets by artisan Jim Colony.

 

Whether it was artisan jewelry, sale of a hand-sewn quilt or a fundraising dinner in the Alumni Club at UCSD, the grassroots efforts of this community allowed the Clearity Foundation and the women it serves to become stronger in leading the way to more individualized patient care. Everyone of you has helped the foundation continue to fulfill its mission of helping women with ovarian cancer get access to information that will allow them to make more informed treatment decisions.


Wheel to Survive, Dallas wheeltosurvive

 

The secret to enduring six-hours of pedaling a bicycle is knowing that you could be saving a woman's life, according to some of the 257 people who participated in the Wheel to Survive cycle-a-thon on February 17 in Dallas.

 

Wheel to Survive is an indoor cycling event in which ovarian cancer survivors, their friends and family members raised more than $280,000 for the Clearity Foundation and ovarian cancer research. It was the second year for the Dallas event that was organized by ovarian cancer survivors Helen Gardner, Jill Bach, Lynn Lentscher and Julie Shrell. The women united two years ago and formed the Be the Difference Foundation to raise funds to support programs for early detection, genetic risk awareness, better treatment options and a CURE for ovarian cancer.

 

"Seeing so many people unite to raise hope and find a cure for ovarian cancer is powerful, satisfying and undeniably essential to those of us who have survived this disease that is touching and taking the lives of moms, daughters, wives, friends and relatives," said Lynn Lentscher. "To be the catalyst in raising over $280,000 is thrilling and humbling," she said.

 

The event also brought a voice to the symptoms and a need for better screening and treatment options by generating coverage of the event in the Dallas media. "I'm so proud of what we've accomplished in such a short time," said Julie Shrell, one of the organizers. Sadly, said fellow organizer Jill Bach, the funds raised is "just a drop in the bucket of what is really needed to cure this disease."

 

Wheel to Survive organizer Helen Gardner became a supporter of The Clearity Foundation after the organization helped her obtain her tumor "blueprint" when her ovarian cancer recurred. Helen said she's giving thanks to Clearity by raising funds that will help pay for other women to receive their unique tumor blueprint. Armed with the blueprint, women and their doctors can make more informed decisions about different treatment options that may work best on their specific type of cancer cell.

 

In the United States, 22,000 women a year are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Since there are no early detection methods and symptoms frequently go undiagnosed, the cancer often is not diagnosed until later stages of the disease. As a result, ovarian cancer has a 70 percent mortality rate.

 

Those stats are all too familiar to the Wheel to Survive organizers. After hundreds of rounds of chemotherapy and numerous surgeries, Helen said Wheel to Survive allows her to "embrace the beauty of reaching out and helping someone else and trying

 to be the difference in someone else's life."

 

The Clearity Foundation is also making a difference in the lives of women right now by helping ovarian cancer patients obtain testing that could point them and their doctors to more effective treatments, she said. And it is improving lives in the future, she said, by being a part of the medical community shift to personalized medicine.

 

Wine Tasting Dinner with Eddie Osterlandwine

 

In September, Mary and Chris Gluck, owners of The Wine

 Vault & Bistro hosted a fantastic fundraising event with outstanding wine and appetizers. The featured auction item was a wine pairing dinner for 8 hosted by Eddie Osterland, America's First Master Sommelier and nationally acclaimed speaker on food and wine, with food prepared by Lynne Thrope, a San Diego ovarian cancer survivor. "I love to cook, but 'going public' with a 5-course dinner served to such generous people motivated me to create a meal that reflected my warm appreciation for their support of The Clearity Foundation," said Lynne. In January, dinner hosts Peter and Tania Swain gathered with friends in their home for an unforgettable evening with Mr. Osterland and Ms. Thorpe. Guests enjoyed incredible food, wine and entertainment at the event, all while supporting Clearity's mission. "We learned a lot about wine and the craft of a Master Sommelier as we enjoyed good food and wine and great company. It was entertaining and delicious. We had a blast with our friends and all for a great cause!" said Tania. 

Congratulations to Wende Hutton: Winner of Julie Crawford's Quilt!quilt 

Julie Crawford was inspired to do something to show her appreciation to The Clearity Foundation for the work being done on behalf of all women facing recurrence of ovarian cancer and to honor all women who are fighting the disease today.  Julie created a beautiful quilt so that Clearity could offer it as the prize in a raffle that raised over $1,600 in contributions to the foundatin.

 

Wende Hutton, a general partner at Canaan Partners, was the lucky winner.

 

"I have watched brave women fight ovarian cancer," Wende said. "Fortunately, The Clearity Foundation is working to bring much-needed life-saving treatment options forward to ovarian cancer patients. My hope is that we see survival rates change significantly in the next five years."