OCRA-Funded Research Discoveries in 2020

Posted on December 17, 2020

It’s hard to believe 2020 is almost over, and what a year it’s been.

Despite the challenges wrought by the pandemic, we’re grateful to report that thanks to your support, OCRA grantees made great strides in ovarian cancer discoveries, bringing us ever closer to improving care and defeating this devastating disease:

Revealed two cells of origin for high-grade serous ovarian cancer — the most common type of ovarian cancer.

Helped explain why clear cell ovarian cancers typically respond poorly to chemotherapy.

Explored new pathways for understanding how and why ovarian cancer spreads to other body systems.

Defined a combination therapy that significantly delays tumor growth and has implications for improving patient response to immunotherapy.

Shed new light on the possible origins of some ovarian cancers.

Advanced the design of drug therapy combinations to more effectively kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.

Identified new genes associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer.

Made progress toward increasing the efficacy of PARP inhibitors.

Identified a new drug that destroys stem-like cancer cells, opening the door to better preventing recurrence.

In a time when most of the world shut down, we forged on—and we couldn’t have done it without you, and every member of this strong community who shares our belief that a cure is within reach.

Thank you for joining us in this fight.