Each year, about 25-thousand women in the United States are diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Many already have advanced disease by the time they get that diagnosis.
Because there is no good screening test and the cnacer is often caught too late, overall survival is about 25-percent.
Now, a new discovery that could improve those odds.
Happily married with two healthy kids, Jill Kisker was living a charmed life.
"The best thing that ever happened to me was having my kids."
Then the worst thing happened.
Three years ago, Jill was diagnosed with stage-three ovarian cancer.
"I just thought my kids are so little. They just can't, this just can't be true. How did this happen? How did I get here?"
Determined to beat the odds, Jill had surgery, six rounds of chemo and joined a study on an experimental vaccine.
Doctor Kunle Odunsi is testing a vaccine that targets and destroys a specific protein usually found in adult male testes, but it's also found on ovarian cancer cells.
"We're able to generate very robust immune responses."
In a study of 22 women, 70 percent had a positive response to the vaccine.
"I think it's highly promising."
In another study in women who already had several recurrences, the vaccine delayed their next relapse by nearly two years.
"The ultimate goal here is that this will translate into prevention of relapse altogether and therefore prolongation of overall survival."
Three years later, Jill is still cancer-free.
But she knows she's not out of the woods.
"Whatever I have to do to be here, I'll do it ... as long as I'm here."
Because for her, anything else is simply not an option.
In the study JIll was in, the vaccine was given as an injection once a month for seven months.
Doctor Odunsi says he has seen no side effects in any women who have received the vaccine other than a little redness at the injection site.
Many already have advanced disease by the time they get that diagnosis.
Because there is no good screening test and the cnacer is often caught too late, overall survival is about 25-percent.
Now, a new discovery that could improve those odds.
Happily married with two healthy kids, Jill Kisker was living a charmed life.
"The best thing that ever happened to me was having my kids."
Then the worst thing happened.
Three years ago, Jill was diagnosed with stage-three ovarian cancer.
"I just thought my kids are so little. They just can't, this just can't be true. How did this happen? How did I get here?"
Determined to beat the odds, Jill had surgery, six rounds of chemo and joined a study on an experimental vaccine.
Doctor Kunle Odunsi is testing a vaccine that targets and destroys a specific protein usually found in adult male testes, but it's also found on ovarian cancer cells.
"We're able to generate very robust immune responses."
In a study of 22 women, 70 percent had a positive response to the vaccine.
"I think it's highly promising."
In another study in women who already had several recurrences, the vaccine delayed their next relapse by nearly two years.
"The ultimate goal here is that this will translate into prevention of relapse altogether and therefore prolongation of overall survival."
Three years later, Jill is still cancer-free.
But she knows she's not out of the woods.
"Whatever I have to do to be here, I'll do it ... as long as I'm here."
Because for her, anything else is simply not an option.
In the study JIll was in, the vaccine was given as an injection once a month for seven months.
Doctor Odunsi says he has seen no side effects in any women who have received the vaccine other than a little redness at the injection site.
