News

New Tool Could Speed Development of Ovarian Cancer Drugs

New Tool Could Speed Development of Ovarian Cancer Drugs

February 13, 2015

(February 13, 2015) University of Chicago Medicine researchers, including OCRF grantee and Scientific Advisory Committee member Ernst Lengyel, MD, PhD, have built a model system that uses multiple cell types from patients to rapidly test compounds that could block the early steps in ovarian cancer metastasis. Their three-dimensional cell-culture system, adapted for high-throughput screening, has … Continued

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Awards Nearly $6.5 Million in ...

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Awards Nearly $6.5 Million in Grants

February 11, 2015

Total investment in the field now over $65 million New York, NY February 11, 2015 — To conclude Ovarian Cancer Research Fund’s 20th anniversary year, $6.453 million has been awarded in scientific research grants for ovarian cancer and program grants to support gynecologic cancer patients. This brings OCRF’s total investment in research and related educational … Continued

Meet OCRF’s 2015 Grantees

Meet OCRF’s 2015 Grantees

February 11, 2015

(February 11, 2015) Ovarian Cancer Research Fund has announced that $6.1 million has been awarded in scientific research grants for ovarian cancer. This brings OCRF’s total investment in research and related educational and support initiatives to nearly $70 million. The twenty new OCRF research grants have been awarded to top scientists at fourteen leading medical centers across … Continued

SGI-110 is an Ovarian Cancer Chemosensitizer

SGI-110 is an Ovarian Cancer Chemosensitizer

February 4, 2015

(February 4, 2014)  In research published last October in Clinical Cancer Research, a team of OCRF-funded investigators showed that a novel therapy can resentisize ovarian cancer to chemotherapy.  The work was led by Dr. Kenneth Nephew, who was funded through an OCRF Program Project Development Grant. The development of resistance to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer … Continued

OCRF Research Identifies Six New Susceptibility Loci for Ov...

OCRF Research Identifies Six New Susceptibility Loci for Ovarian Cancer

February 3, 2015

(Feb. 3, 2015) An international study using data from the OCRF-funded Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium has found six new gene regions which increase a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer.  The findings were published this month in Nature Communications. Previous studies have identified 12 epithelial ovarian cancer susceptibility alleles (an allele is one of two or … Continued

Population Study Shows Salpingectomy Decreases Risk of Ovar...

Population Study Shows Salpingectomy Decreases Risk of Ovarian Cancer

February 2, 2015

(Feb. 2, 2015) Recent studies have suggested that ovarian cancer predominantly arises within the fallopian tubes or the uterus. A group of Swedish researchers hypothesized that surgical removal of the fallopian tubes (salpingectomy) is associated with a reduced risk for ovarian cancer. In the study, which involved hundreds of thousands of women, researchers compared women who … Continued

OCRF Research Pinpoints Two Genes that Trigger Ovarian Cancer

OCRF Research Pinpoints Two Genes that Trigger Ovarian Cancer

January 28, 2015

(January 28, 2015) OCRF grantee Ron Chandler, PhD developed a mouse model of clear cell ovarian cancer and found a potential route to better treatments and much-needed diagnostic screens. Dr. Chandler spearheaded a team of researchers at University of North Carolina that developed a mouse model of clear cell ovarian cancer that accurately portrays the … Continued

Veliparib Trial Fails to Improve Outcomes in Ovarian Cancer

Veliparib Trial Fails to Improve Outcomes in Ovarian Cancer

January 26, 2015

(January 26, 2015) Use of the PARP inhibitor veliparib in combination with oral cyclophosphamide did not result in an improvement in response rate or median progression-free survival compared with treatment with cyclophosphamide alone, according to a phase II study evaluating patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer, peritoneal, fallopian tube, and BRCA-mutant ovarian cancers. The research was … Continued

BRCA1/2 Mutations and 10 year Survival in Ovarian Cancer

BRCA1/2 Mutations and 10 year Survival in Ovarian Cancer

January 22, 2015

(January 22, 2015) In a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, researchers analyzed the effect of germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 on mortality in ovarian cancer patients up to ten years after diagnosis. The researchers found that BRCA1/2 mutations are associated with better short-term survival, but this advantage decreases over time and, in BRCA1 … Continued

Ovarian Cancer Will Continue to be Sequenced After The Canc...

Ovarian Cancer Will Continue to be Sequenced After The Cancer Genome Atlas Ends

January 6, 2015

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a massive U.S. effort to genetically profile 10,000 tumors, has officially come to an end. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has announced that it will continue to intensively sequence tumors in three cancers, ovarian, colorectal and lung adenocarcinoma, with an expanded scope that incorporates detailed clinical information about the patient’s … Continued

Palliative Care Consultation Improves Symptoms in Gynecolog...

Palliative Care Consultation Improves Symptoms in Gynecologic Cancer Patients

January 5, 2015

A new study published in Gynecologic Oncology found that palliative care consultation is associated with improvement in symptom burden, the majority of which occurs within one day of consultation. Palliative care (or treatment) relieves symptoms such as pain, and reduces the suffering caused by cancer. Its main purpose is to keep the best quality of life … Continued

FDA Approves Olaparib for Ovarian Cancer

FDA Approves Olaparib for Ovarian Cancer

December 22, 2014

(December 19, 2014) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved AstraZeneca’s Olaparib (Lynparza) for advanced, BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer, the first approval of a drug in the PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitor class. The FDA also approved Myriad Genetics’ BRACAnalysis CDx test to determine patients’ BRCA status as a companion diagnostic for determining whether … Continued