Cushing’s Awareness Challenge, Day 1: Rare Disease Congressional Caucus Briefing

Posted on April 1, 2013 by MaryO
Cushing's Awareness Challenge 2013

Cushing’s Awareness Challenge 2013

The Challenge is back!

This year, I’m doing something w-a-y outside my comfort zone for Cushing’s Awareness.

A while ago, I got this email:

Rare Disease Congressional Caucus Briefing

Good morning Mary:

I hope everything is well.

I would like to invite you to join us at the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus briefing scheduled for April 2013. The final date is still being discussed but we are looking into two possible dates of either April 16th or April 18th. The meeting will take place in Washington, D.C. and will be attended by members of the Rare Disease Caucus including co-chairs Rep. Joseph Crowley and Rep. Leonard Lance.

As you may know Rare Disease Congressional Caucus is a forum for members of Congress to voice constituent concerns, share ideas, and build support for legislation that will improve the lives of people with rare diseases. The goal of the meeting in April is to educate the members of the Caucus about rare pituitary disorders, including Cushing’s Disease – area that has received little to no recognition among legislators. The meeting will serve as an opportunity to raise legislators’ awareness about multiple issues that patients with rare pituitary diseases, such as Cushing’s disease and Acromegaly, face in their everyday lives.

In preparation for the meeting we drafted a Resolution that addresses some of the key challenges for the patient community including long diagnostic delays, limited treatment options, difficulty finding physicians or treatment centers with expertise in their disease and as a result – a  diminished quality of life for patients. Would you be willing to have a look at the draft in the attachment and provide your feedback? Your opinion as a leader of the patient community and expert in Cushing’s disease would be highly appreciated.

I sincerely hope that you will be able to join us at the meeting to share your perspective and talk about the work that you are doing to help patient afflicted by Cushing’s disease live happier and healthier lives.

Please feel free to call or email anytime if you have questions or if you would like to discuss this further. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Regards,

Even though I’m absolutely terrified of speaking in front of groups (or singles!) I’m going to do this. What a fantastic opportunity to get the word out there for Cushing’s!

Turns out this will be April 16 – wish me luck!

maryo colorful zebra

Filed under: Cushing's, Interview, Rare Diseases | 5 Comments »

Cushing’s Awareness Blogging Challenge 2013

Posted on March 14, 2013 by MaryO

Do you blog? Want to get started?

Since April 8 is Cushing’s Awareness Day, several people got their heads together to create the Second Annual Cushing’s Awareness Blogging Challenge.

All you have to do is blog about something Cushing’s related for the 30 days of April.

Robin designed this year’s version of our “official logo” to put on your blogs.

Cushing's Awareness Challenge 2013

challenge-2013nb

If your blog wants you to upload an image from your desktop, right-click on the image above and choose “save-as”. Remember where you saved it to!

To link to the image with the yellow border, use this URL: http://www.cushings-help.com/images/challenge-2013b.jpg

To link to the image without a border, use this URL: http://www.cushings-help.com/images/challenge-2013nb.jpg

In all cases, the URL for the site is http://www.cushings-help.com

Please let me know the URL to your blog in the comments area of this post or and I will list it on CushieBloggers ( http://cushie-blogger.blogspot.com/ ) The more people who participate, the more the word will get out about Cushing’s.

Suggested topics – or add your own!
In what ways have Cushing’s made you a better person?
What have you learned about the medical community since you have become sick?
If you had one chance to speak to an endocrinologist association meeting, what would you tell them about Cushing’s patients?
What would you tell the friends and family of another Cushing’s patient in order to garner more emotional support for your friend?Challenges with Cushing’s? How have you overcome challenges? Stuff like that.
I have Cushing’s Disease….(personal synopsis)
How I found out I have Cushing’s
What is Cushing’s Disease/Syndrome? (Personal variation, i.e. adrenal or pituitary or ectopic, etc.)
My challenges with Cushing’s
Overcoming challenges with Cushing’s (could include any challenges)
If I could speak to an endocrinologist organization, I would tell them….
What would I tell others trying to be diagnosed? What would I tell families of those who are sick with Cushing’s?
Treatments I’ve gone through to try to be cured/treatments I may have to go through to be cured.
What will happen if I’m not cured?
I write about my health because…
10 Things I Couldn’t Live Without.
My Dream Day.
What I learned the hard way
Miracle Cure. (Write a news-style article on a miracle cure. What’s the cure? How do you get the cure? Be sure to include a disclaimer)
Health Madlib Poem. Go to http://languageisavirus.com/cgi-bin/madlibs.pl and fill in the parts of speech and the site will generate a poem for you.
The Things We Forget. Visit http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/ and make your own version of a short memo reminder. Where would you post it?
Give yourself, your condition, or your health focus a mascot. Is it a real person? Fictional? Mythical being? Describe them. Bonus points if you provide a visual!
5 Challenges & 5 Small Victories.
The First Time I…
Make a word cloud or tree with a list of words that come to mind when you think about your blog, health, or interests. Use a thesaurus to make it branch more.
How much money have you spent on Cushing’s, or, How did Cushing’s impact your life financially?
Why do you think Cushing’s may not be as rare as doctors believe?
What is your theory about what causes Cushing’s?
How has Cushing’s altered the trajectory of your life? What would you have done? Who would you have been?
What three things has Cushing’s stolen from you? What do you miss the most? What can you do in your Cushing’s life to still achieve any of those goals? What new goals did Cushing’s bring to you?
How do you cope?
What do you do to improve your quality of life as you fight Cushing’s?
Your thoughts…?

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Cushing’s Syndrome, Prostate Cancer and Adrenocortical Carcinoma

Posted on March 11, 2013 by MaryO

Orphagen has identified and characterized small molecule antagonists to steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1). SF-1 binds to and regulates DNA promoter elements in the major transporters and enzymes required for adrenal steroid synthesis. It is also required for development of the adrenal gland. SF-1 antagonists inhibit cortisol secretion in adrenal cells and have potential application in two orphan indications, Cushing’s syndrome and adrenocortical carcinoma. In addition, SF-1 appears to have an important role in the progression of advanced prostate cancer.

 

cushings-adrenocortical-crop

 

Cushing’s syndrome:
An estimated 20,000 people in the US have Cushing’s, with more than 3,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The incidence is similar in Europe. Cushing’s syndrome disproportionately affects females, who make up about 75% of the diagnosed cases. Symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome can include obesity, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, osteoporosis and immune suppression. Cushing’s syndrome is caused by elevated secretion of cortisol from the adrenal gland, in association with pituitary, adrenal or other cancers.

Orphagen has identified small molecule antagonists to SF-1 that have the potential to suppress cortisol levels in all Cushing’s patients without serious side effects.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC):
ACC is a rare malignancy with an extremely poor prognosis (5-year overall survival: 37-47%). Complete surgical resection offers hope for long-term survival but surgery is not an option in up to two-thirds of patients because metastasis has usually occurred by the time of diagnosis.

SF-1 is recognized as a potential mechanism-based therapeutic target for control of ACC and an SF-1 antagonist could be used in the treatment of ACC.

Pediatric ACC:
Pediatric ACC is a very rare but aggressive cancer with a long-term survival rate of about 50%. Approximately 60% of children with adrenocortical tumors are diagnosed before the age of four. The SF-1 gene is amplified and SF-1 protein is overexpressed in the vast majority of childhood adrenocortical tumors strongly implicating SF-1 in pediatric adrenocortical tumorigenesis.

Castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC):
CRPC is the most common cancer in males. Surgery is not an option if the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland, at which point patients typically receive hormonal therapy, essentially chemical castration. This course of therapy usually fails within two years, resulting in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Most patients eventually succumb to CRPC, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men.
SF-1 antagonists may: (1) block the adrenal androgens that circumvent chemical castration, and are a primary cause of CRPC; and (2) inhibit synthesis of androgens within the prostate tumor itself, where SF-1 may control induction of enzymes for de novo androgen synthesis in treatment-resistant cancers.

From http://www.orphagen.com/research_cushings.html

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Cushing’s, The “Gift” that Keeps on Giving

Posted on October 9, 2012 by MaryO

I had an eye doctor appointment yesterday. No problems, just a routine check, maybe update my contacts to a newer version.

I was completely not ready when the doctor said “cataracts” to me. Say what? I’m not that old.  He mentioned a few other things like macular degeneration but that was less distressing to me somehow than the Cataract Word.

They’re not bad yet.  They’re slow growing.  I won’t need to do anything about them for 7-8 years.  AARRGGHH!

My mother is waiting for her cataract surgery.  Maybe we can do this together, a bonding thing.

When I got home and all the eye drops had worn off, I looked at the brochures he had given me.  One of the symptoms was light insensitivity.  So that explains why I have trouble first thing in the morning and it hurts to open my eyes and other bright lights can be painful.  It’s nice to be validated but…

Then, I turned the page to find contributing factors and came upon the word STEROIDS.  Not again!  Almost all the problems in my life start with the word steroids.  I did a search of the Cushing’s Help boards for “Cataracts” and came up with 84 entries.  How could I have missed this?

From Cigna.com:

The eye conditions glaucoma and cataracts also may occur in Cushing’s syndrome. In Cushing’s disease (tumors on the pituitary gland), your field of vision can be affected. You may have loss of side, or peripheral, vision.

Filed under: Cushing's, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A New Blogging Challenge

Posted on May 16, 2012 by MaryO
Blog

If any other Cushie bloggers are interested in this challenge, let me know and I’ll promote your blog on http://www.cushie-blogger.blogspot.com/

Attention bloggers! WEGO Health has found another writing challenge in honor of National Women’s Health Week, The Fitness & Health Bloggers Conference (the same one that one of our Health Activists will be attending!) is hosting a week long blogger challenge in honor of National Women’s Health Week. The theme for National Women’s Health Week is “It’s Your Time” National Women’s Health Week empowers women to make their health a top priority. It also encourages women to take the following steps to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases.

Filed under: Cushing's, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

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