Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhDDana-Farber Cancer Institute OC130658: Noncoding RNAs as Prognostic and Predictive Biomarkers in BRCA 1/2-Mutated and Wildtype Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Patients with epithelial ovarian cancer that carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations can successfully be treated with platinum chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors because the BRCA1/2 mutations cause a defect in DNA repair. This allows the […]
Read MoreSrinivas Sridhar, PhDNortheastern University Targeted PARP Inhibitor Nanotherapy for Ovarian Cancer PARP inhibitor therapy has shown promising results in clinical trials for ovarian cancer, but oral administration of these drugs requires high doses leading to toxic side effects, and very little drug actually reaches the tumors. Dr. Sridhar and colleagues have synthesized nano-scale formulations of […]
Read MoreRobert Jaffe, MDUniversity of California San Francisco Inhibition of Telomerase to Treat Advanced Ovarian Cancer Telomerase is an enzyme that maintains and protects the ends of chromosomes, the telomeres. While telomerase is constrained in many normal adult cells, a majority of cancers appear to depend on active telomerase for their growth, making this enzyme an […]
Read MoreMark 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 […]
Read MoreJason 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 […]
Read MoreToshi 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, […]
Read MoreMark Nachtigal, PhDUniversity of Manitoba Autocrine bone morphogenic protein (BMP) inhibition: a novel therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer? Protein growth factors belonging to the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) superfamily, which include bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs), influence the growth, motility, and invasive potential of ovarian cancer cells. Blocking of these pathways may produce a more […]
Read MoreIngegerd Hellstrom, MD, PhDUniversity of Washington Silencing TGFbeta to increase the immunogenicity of ovarian carcinoma cells This study aims to improve a woman’s prognosis by adding a therapeutic vaccination to encourage the body to mount an anti-tumor response using the secreted growth regulatory protein TGFβ (transforming growth factor). Dr. Hellstrom has shown that a mouse […]
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