The Rivkin Center and the American Association for Cancer Research are proud to present the Virtual Ovarian Cancer Research Seminar Series in September 2022 in honor of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
The 14th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium will take place in the form of a Virtual Seminar Series that will provide an educational opportunity and keep our community connected. The goal of the Seminar Series is to bring together clinicians and researchers from across many disciplines and institutions worldwide to share ideas and advance the field of ovarian cancer research. The Seminars seek to enhance the understanding and knowledge of ovarian cancer, discuss the most recent innovations in the field of ovarian cancer research, and address pressing concerns of the leaders in the clinical and research community.
The Seminar topics were developed by our Planning Committee and each Seminar will feature invited lectures by experts in the field, as well as Lightning Round talks from selected abstracts. Abstracts not selected for the Lightning Round talks may be invited to submit a virtual poster. AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM will be offered for the live, virtual activity. Registration will cover all four Seminars; you cannot register for individual Seminars. For registrants who are unable to join us live, recordings of the Seminars will be made available OnDemand for 90 days on the AACR website.
Continuing Medical Education Activity – AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM available. Visit the CME tab for more information.
For questions, please contact Jackie Lang at jackie.lang@rivkin.org or (206)490-0847 x104.
To join the live, virtual seminars, you must register for the Seminar Series. Please visit the Registration tab.
Each seminar will consist of two full-length talks from invited experts, a round of 5-minute lightning round talks from selected abstracts, and a fireside chat, where the two main presenters and the moderator will dive into a deeper discussion of the challenges and future directions of that specific field.
The four seminars will take place on September 21, 22, 28, and 29, 2022 from 12-2 pm PDT.
The agenda for each two-hour seminar will be roughly as follows. Please note that all times are in Pacific Time.
12:00 PM – 12:05 PM
12:05 PM – 12:35 PM
12:35 PM – 1:05 PM
1:05 PM – 1:40 PM
1:40 PM – 2:00 PM
Welcome & Intro
Speaker 1 (talk & Q&A)
Speaker 2 (talk & Q&A)
Lightning Round talks (5 5-minute talks & group Q&A)
Fireside Chat
Moderator
Speaker 1
Neil Johnson, PhD
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Clare Scott, MB, PhD
University of Melbourne
Speaker 2
Additional Expert
Rugang Zhang, PhD
The Wistar Institute
James Lillard, PhD, MBA
Morehouse
Moderator
Speaker 1
Goli Samimi, PhD
National Cancer Institute
Kathryn Alsop, PhD
Peter MacCullum Cancer Centre in Melbourne
Speaker 2
Joan Walker, MD or Warner Huh, MD
(SOROCk trial investigator)
Moderator
Speaker 1
Christina Annunziata, MD
National Cancer Institute
Jose Conejo-Garcia, MD, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center
Speaker 2
Tonya Webb, PhD
University of Maryland
Moderator
Speaker 1
Sarah Temkin, MD
National Cancer Institute
Tomi Akinyemiju, PhD
Duke University School of Medicine
Speaker 2
Sophia George, PhD
University of Miami
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education (CME) activities for physicians.
AACR has designated this internet live activity for a maximum of 8.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Credit certification for individual sessions may vary, dependent upon compliance with the ACCME Accreditation Criteria. The final number of credits may vary from the maximum number indicated above.
Physicians and other health care professionals seeking AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM for this live continuing medical education activity must complete the online CME Request for Credit Survey by Wednesday, November 18, 2022. Certificates will only be issued to those who complete the survey. The Request for Credit Survey will be available via a link on the 14th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium website or via email. Your CME certificate will be sent to you via email after the completion of the activity.
Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 8.0 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Participants will earn MOC points equivalent to the amount of CME credits claimed for the activity. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.
Approximately 19,880 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. The overall 5-year survival rate is only 50% for ovarian cancer –lower in African-American women, and the rate is markedly lower for advanced stage cancers. Sadly, the survival rates have only improved slightly over 40 years, and access to healthcare and other socioeconomic factors present additional obstacles to improved outcomes. While ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecologic cancer, it is underrepresented in both research funding and research participants. Additionally complicating the difficulty in diagnosing the disease beyond its physical complexities is that ovarian cancer is a rare disease and many providers will have limited access to information on the signs, symptoms, and latest techniques to diagnose the disease.
In this course we are addressing major needs in ovarian cancer care and research by educating health care providers and researchers in the latest research on improving treatment, early detection, and prevention, as well as recognizing healthcare disparities and promoting a better understanding of the many diseases under the umbrella of ovarian cancer.
The Planning Committee has designed this event to benefit the following audiences: basic scientists, epidemiologists, clinical scientists, and clinicians as well as geneticists, public health researchers, nurses, and advocates for ovarian cancer research. This conference encourages the collaboration between professionals with a wide variety of expertise including: gynecologic oncology, medical oncology, pathology, genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, public health, behavioral epidemiology, translational research, patient care, and patient advocacy.
After participating in this CME activity, physicians should be able to:
It is the policy of the AACR that the information presented at AACR CME activities will be unbiased and based on scientific evidence. To help participants make judgments about the presence of bias, AACR will provide information that Scientific Program Committee members and speakers have disclosed all financial relationships they have with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products or services used by or on patients. All of the relevant financial relationships for these individuals have been mitigated.
This activity is supported by Professional Educational Grants and will be disclosed at the activity.
Please contact the Office of CME at (215) 440-9300 or cme@aacr.org.
The purpose of the Planning Committee is to develop the scope and goals of the 14th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium, which will take place in the form of a virtual seminar series. The members’ collective expertise informed the selection of invited speakers, topics of the seminars, and all elements of the programming. The seminar series seeks to enhance the understanding and knowledge of ovarian cancer, especially among junior and young investigators, discuss the most recent innovations in the field of ovarian cancer research, and address the pressing concerns among the leaders of the clinical and research community.
alth
Jackie Lang, PhD
Rivkin Center
Dean Post
American Association for Cancer Research
For more information about sponsoring this year’s event, please review our sponsorship packet or contact Wendy Rosen, Director of Development, at wendy.rosen@rivkin.org or (206) 584-2271.
Talking to your family and identifying cancer in your family tree can be a good indicator of your health risks. Download our Family Tree Worksheet here. Be sure to include yourself, children, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
Ready to take action? Knowledge is power. Take this short quiz to be proactive about your health.
Our bodies are made of many tiny building blocks called cells. Our cells contain a copy of our genome – all of the DNA genetic code we inherited from our parents. Our genome is organized into 46 chromosomes, 23 inherited from mom and 23 from dad. Each chromosome has hundreds or thousands of genes. Each gene has the instructions to make a protein that may control the structure or function of cells, can determine many things including how tall we are or the color of our eyes. Genes also contain instructions for many things inside of us that we cannot see, such as how our bones are formed or how our heart works. Each gene is made up of molecules called nucleic acids (A, T, C, and G). The specific sequence of the nucleic acids holds the instructions that control all the components and their functions in cells.
If the DNA sequence is changed, like a spelling mistake, the instructions may not make sense. The technical term for this change is “mutation,” meaning there is a change to the usual genetic code that may change the instructions stored in the gene. A mutation in a gene that repairs DNA damage or controls cell growth can increase the risk of developing cancer.
Ovarian and breast cancer can be either sporadic or hereditary. Sporadic cancers make up the vast majority (85-90%) of ovarian and breast cancers and are not associated with family history of either cancer or inherited cancer-associated mutations. Sporadic cancers arise from genetic mutations acquired in some cells of the body by events part of normal metabolism and environmental factors. This type of cancer can happen to anyone. Most acquired gene mutations are not shared among relatives or passed on to children.
Hereditary (also known as inherited, or familial) cancers are those that occur due to genetic mutations that are inherited from mom or dad. Other blood relatives may also share these same gene mutations. Parents give one copy of each gene to their children. If a parent has a genetic mutation in a gene, each of their children have a 50% chance of inheriting that mutation. Therefore, even in families with hereditary cancer, not all family members inherit the mutation that is causing cancer, and their risk of cancer is similar to the average person in the general population. Individuals who are suspected to have a family history with high incidence of ovarian, breast, and other cancers may be offered genetic testing to try to find the specific genetic mutation that may put them at risk. Importantly, individuals who do not have a known genetic mutation but have high incidence of ovarian, breast, or other cancers in their families are still considered at higher risk for developing those cancers.
Hereditary cancers often occur at an earlier age than the sporadic form of the same cancer, so experts often recommend starting cancer screening at a younger age for individuals at high risk for hereditary cancer. Hereditary cancers can also be more aggressive than the sporadic form of the same cancer. Individuals who have inherited a gene mutation may be at a higher risk for more than one type of cancer.
The genes that are most commonly involved in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) are BRCA1 and BRCA2. These genes are named for their link to breast (BR) cancer (CA), but they are also linked to ovarian cancer risk as well as other cancers. Both women and men can inherit mutations in these HBOC genes. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumor suppressor genes that have a usual role in our body of providing instructions on repairing DNA damage and preventing cancer. When a family has an inherited mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2, this leads to an increase in cancer risk. Not every man or woman who has inherited a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene will develop cancer, but people who have a mutation do have a significanlty increased chance of developing cancer, particularly cancer of the breasts or ovaries.
While breast and ovarian cancers are the most common cancers diagnosed in people with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, the risk of some other cancers is also increased. Men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have a higher risk of early-onset prostate cancer than men without mutations in either gene. Other cancers seen at increased rates, particularly in individuals with BRCA2 mutations, include pancreatic cancer and melanoma. Researchers are continuing to find new genes that are involved in hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer so it is important to follow up with a genetic counselor on a regular basis if hereditary breast and ovarian cancer is likely in your family.
Talk to your family about your health history and take the Assess Your Risk quiz here
