Jason Wilken, PhD, BSYale University Overcoming Primary Herceptin Resistance in Ovarian Cancer Herceptin, a therapeutic antibody that targets ErbB2 and has a well-tolerated safety profile has proven exceptionally useful as a treatment for ErbB2+ breast cancer patients. Surprisingly, Herceptin has proven to be ineffective as a treatment option for ovarian cancer. Dr. Wilken, with the […]
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Jean-Bernard Lazaro, PhDDana-Farber Cancer Institute Targeting DNA repair genes and the nucleolar proteome to increase cisplatin sensitivity in ovarian cancer Patients with ovarian cancer who are treated with cisplatin often develop resistance to the drug, as cisplatin acts by damaging cellular DNA, which in turn induces apoptosis. Repair of cisplatin-induced DNA damage by a few […]
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Keren Levanon, MD, PhDDana-Farber Cancer Institute The Fallopian Tube as field of origin of ovarian serous carcinoma Research on ovarian carcinogenesis has traditionally focused on the ovarian surface epithelium as the fields of origin. More recently, the secretory cell of the fallopian tube has emerged as an alternate cell-of-origin for ovarian and pelvic serous carcinomas, […]
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Christina Annunziata, MD, PhDNational Cancer Institute Characterization of NF-kB signaling as a therapeutic target in ovarian cancer The NF-kB family of transcription factors has been implicated in the increase of ovarian cancer cell lines, but the significance and the mechanism of signaling is unknown. Initial experiments identified a subset of ovarian cancer cell lines that […]
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Mark Poznansky, MD, PhDMassachusetts General Hospital Antagonism of SDF-1 production by ovarian cancer and tumor immune control Immune cell migration into ovarian cancer is an important way in which the tumor is recognized as abnormal and killed by the immune system. Ovarian cancer tumors produce high amounts of a protein called SDF-1, thereby preventing immune […]
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Kwong-Kwok Wong, PhDUniversity of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center To investigate invasion determinants in low-grade ovarian serous cancer Low-grade ovarian serous carcinomas (OSCs) appear to be a continuum from borderline tumors, and is often resistance to chemotherapy. The possible progression from borderline tumor to low-grade OSC will involve the acquisition of the ability to invade […]
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Jason Wilken, PhDYale University sErb83: A novel ovarian cancer prognostic biomarker A well-studied growth regulator in the development of ovarian cancer is the “oncogene” known as ErbB3/HER-3. There are several naturally-occurring variants of ErbB3 which are difficult to distinguish by currently available methods. We believe that developing accurate and specific tests for each ErbB3 variant […]
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Terry Van Dyke, PhD and Vickie Bae-Jump, MD, PhDThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A Pathway to Therapeutic Treatment and Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer This project will compare global gene expression patterns across human and a novel genetically engineered mouse model of epithelial ovarian cancer in order to identify relevant molecular pathways […]
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Toshi Taniguchi, MD, PhDFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Secondary Mutations of BRCA1/2 in BRCA 1/2 Mutated Ovarian Cancer with Primary Platinum Resistance Platinum compounds are key drugs for the treatment of ovarian cancer and often help patients gain initial remission. However, some patients do not respond, called “primary platinum resistance.” To understand why this happens, […]
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Alexander Nikitin, MD, PhDCornell University Role of miR-34 in ovarian cancer MicroRNAs are a recently discovered class of genes, important for regulation of critical proteins in the cell. We have identified a family of p53-regulated microRNAs (p53 is a protein central to many of the cell’s anti-cancer mechanisms) that are found at reduced levels in […]
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