OCRF Research Identifies Targetable Mutations in Low Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer

(December 2, 2015) Research funded in part by an OCRF grant to Rachel Grisham, MD has identified new, potentially targetable mutations in patients with low grade serous ovarian cancer. Dr. Grisham is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and is a 2014 recipient of the Liz Tilberis Early Career Award.

The study looks at patients with low grade serous ovarian cancer who have had extraordinary responses to treatment with targeted therapy with MEK inhibitors. One patient in particular had previously been treated with multiple surgeries and chemotherapies without significant response, then started treatment with a MEK inhibitor pill in 2009. She experienced a complete response and remains with no evidence of disease. Researchers used next generation sequencing to evaluate the tumors from these patients and found several novel, potentially drugable, genetic alterations within their tumors. The findings also emphasize the important need for deep sequencing in these patients so that we can learn which patients are most likely to respond to targeted therapies and personalize their treatments as best as possible.

The results of the study were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Click here to read the abstract.