Neveen Said, MD, PhD
University of Virginia
Regulation and Function of SPARC in Ovarian Cancer
Epithelial Ovarian cancer (OvCa) is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies. Despite aggressive treatment, recurrence is common with poor survival. Dr. Said has recently reported the loss of expression of the tumor suppressor of the glycoprotein SPARC in advanced OvCa. However information about its tissue-specific regulation is elusive. Our overall objective is to understand the regulation of SPARC in OvCa by inflammation. The central hypothesis is that the inflammatory micro-environment of OvCa inactivates SPARC expression and promotes disease progression. The proposed studies are likely to generate important new clinically relevant mechanisms and biomarkers for targeted therapies.