Melissa Fishel, PhD
Indiana University School of Medicine
Enhancement of ovarian cancer to chemotherapeutics agents, cisplatin and TMZ, using small molecules, BG and MX
With the exception of a small percentage of patients presenting with stage IA/IB ovarian cancer, surgery along is inadequate treatment. However, virtually all patients who die from ovarian cancer have intrinsic or acquired platinum-resistant disease. Our overall goal is to improve upon current, and discover novel, chemotherapeutic agent therapy for ovarian cancer. To accomplish this, this study will investigate the modulation of two prominent DNA damaging agents: cisplatin and TMZ. Combination therapy has potential for first-line therapy and/or as second-line therapy for patients who have failed standard platinum plus paclitaxel chemotherapy. The applicability of the TMZ+MX treatment lies in the fact that the therapeutic target, i.e. DNA repair, is expressed in all ovarian cancers, thus circumventing the problem of differential expression by tumor cell subpopulations.