What happened, in summary

Diane Sarver was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer in January 2010 after a physical therapist noticed fluid on the left side of her neck. She had none of the pelvic symptoms she associated with ovarian cancer and no known family history of cancer.

Chemotherapy initially put Diane into remission, but the cancer returned 2 and a half years later. Two more recurrences followed within another 2 and a half years. Looking for other options, she traveled from Oregon to MD Anderson and joined a Phase IB clinical trial. She took olaparib and AZD2014 by mouth twice a day.

After about 7 weeks, Diane's test results had normalized, and her team described her as an unusual responder. At the time of the story, she was entering her third year on the trial and planned to remain on it as long as the drugs continued to work without side effects. Monthly monitoring was shared between MD Anderson and her Oregon oncologist, reducing the travel burden while keeping both teams involved in her care.