Ovarian Cancer - Stage III: Marcia Scheidler

In 2005, I was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer.

I immediately had a complete hysterectomy and omentum removal. My surgeon was pleased with the surgery results. I then started on the standard treatment for ovarian cancer. After my treatment I stayed in remission for 15 months.

As many other women experience, this disease commonly returns and additional chemotherapy treatments are then administered. After three years of off and on chemotherapy and having only six months in remission each time, we chose to try another oncology center in Beverly Hills (miles from our home in Sacramento) for future treatments.

They offered “targeted therapy” and I hoped it would give me a better chance of finding what chemotherapy drug would put me into a longer remission. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive.

Again, I was put on one of the standard chemotherapies. After three years and so many different drugs and combinations (I even tried a clinical trial) I saw no acceptable results.

One day in 2009, I was working late and had the TV on in my office. An interview came on the show “Extra” about a Dr. Robert Nagourney. They said that he was having higher than normal results treating cancer, with especially good outcomes for ovarian cancer patients.

This caught my attention, so I immediately looked him up on the Internet, got his number and called his office. I was going back to Southern California the next Wednesday, so I scheduled an appointment to meet with Dr. Nagourney.

My husband and I met with the doctor that Wednesday and he reviewed my files. He explained that my cancer is very resistant to most of the drugs I was taking and suggested I get an assay test done at his laboratory, Rational Therapeutics.

We agreed and Dr. Nagourney withdrew some ascites fluid to assay. He tested many different combinations and found one that might work for me. We immediately started my treatment with his combination of drugs and my CA 125 tumor marker went from 366 to 9.2 after four treatments!!

My other oncologist is very pleased with the results of our chemotherapy treatments and we will continue with the assay recommendations for as long as Dr. Nagourney prescribes. I firmly believe that Rational Therapeutics can offer a different level of treatment that other facilities are not capable of providing.

I have been telling everyone I meet who is going through cancer treatments, to please call his office for an appointment and see if Rational Therapeutics can assist in their treatments.

I hope someday soon Rational Therapeutics and Dr. Nagourney will be known worldwide by cancer patients and other physicians for finding the most optimum targeted treatment for each individual and for treating them into possible remission when other doctors have only the "standard" treatments to offer to their patients.