Hui Zong, PhD
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA, United States
2019 Pilot Study Award
Research in Focus: Prevention of ovarian cancer
Efficacy testing for ovarian cancer prevention at pre-malignant stages with a novel mouse model
Prevention remains the ultimate goal for successful management of cancer. Identifying cancer prevention strategies is challenging due to the large population required to run a clinical trial and the amount time it takes to reach the endpoint needed to have results. There is also heightened scrutiny for tolerability and safety for preventative drugs, since they would be used in a relatively healthy population. However, animal models provide an opportunity to devise the most promising preventative regimens to guide clinical trials. In this study, Dr. Zong and colleagues propose to use a new ovarian cancer mouse model that permanently tracks mutant cells from the earliest time points through cancer development to test how effective different compounds may be for cancer prevention. Dr. Zong’s study should lead to promising data regarding these compounds as potential chemo-preventatives and help identify important principles to design highly informative clinical studies for ovarian cancer prevention.