Lavakumar Karyampudi, PhDMayo Clinic PD1 regulated dendritic cells: A target for ovarian cancer immunotherapy Immunosuppression that prevails in ovarian tumor microenvironment is the main reason for the recurrence of disease in ovarian cancer patients. Blockade of suppressor cells and/or immune inhibitory networks during vaccination has great chance at reducing recurrence among patients. PD-1/B7-H1 axis is […]
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Tyler Curiel, MD, MPHUniversity of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Improving B7-H1 blockade to treat ovarian cancer Immunotherapy theoretically should be effective for ovarian cancer but only has modest effects because of ovarian cancer-related immune dysfunction. Dr. Curiel will use a well-established pre-clinical mouse model to test rationally designed combinations of agents that […]
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Martin Cannon, PhDUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Science Dendritic cell vaccination & inhibition of tumor-associated immune suppression Recent clinical studies have found that ovarian cancer patients with Th17 lymphocyte infiltrates in tumors enjoy a markedly longer overall survival, suggesting that Th17 cells play a protective role against ovarian cancer. Dr. Cannon designed an innovative approach […]
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Natasa Obermajer, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh Taming MDSC-controlled Th17-to-Treg cell conversion in ovarian cancer Regulatory T (Treg) cells are part of the immune system and have been shown in ovarian cancer to suppresses immune cell activity and prevent the immune system from fighting ovarian cancer cells. Dr. Obermajer has shown that another type of immune system […]
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Richard Moore, MDUniversity of Rochester Targeting HE4 for Checkpoint Immunotherapy of Ovarian Cancer HE4 is a protein that is highly overproduced in ovarian cancer cells and secreted into the bloodstream and serves as a biomarker for the presence of ovarian cancer. However, HE4 is also causally linked to tumorigenesis by promoting enhanced growth, blood vessel […]
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Gianpietro Dotti, M.D.The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Targeting B7-H3 in Ovarian Cancer Ovarian cancer is an aggressive type of tumor for which no effective therapy is currently available when the disease comes back after chemotherapy and surgery. This has prompted Dr. Dotti to develop a strategy in which the immune system will […]
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John Liao, M.D., Ph.D.University of Washington2018 James A. Harting Pilot Study Award Development of a vaccine to prevent serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma High grade serous ovarian cancer does not originate in the ovary, as once thought, but on the fallopian tube. Precancerous fallopian tube cells (called serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma or STIC) can go through […]
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Lana Kandalaft, PhD University Medical School, Lausanne (CHUV)2019 Dearborn Family Pilot Study Award Development of personalized cancer vaccination strategies in ovarian cancer As ovarian cancer lacks specific symptoms, most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage whereby treatment response is poor. One option for treatment is to activate the patient’s own immune system using individually […]
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