FUNDING @ WORK: NEW HOPE FOR DIFFICULT-TO-TREAT OVARIAN CANCER

JKTG-funded research identified a new therapeutic approach for difficult-to-treat subtype of ovarian cancer. 

Ovarian clear cell carcinoma accounts for approximately five to ten percent of American ovarian cancer cases and about 20 percent of cases in Asia, ranking second as the cause of death from ovarian cancer. People with the clear cell subtype typically do not respond well to platinum-based chemotherapy, leaving limited therapeutic options for these patients.  

The research by scientists at The Wistar Institute and published online in the journal Nature Cell Biology, demonstrates how a mutation in ovarian clear cell carcinoma can be exploited to design a targeted treatment.

According to the announcement from The Wishtar Institute, “conventional chemotherapy treatments have proven an ineffective means of treating this group of ovarian cancer patients, meaning that alternative strategies based on a person’s genetic makeup must be explored,” said Rugang Zhang, Ph.D., professor and co-program leader in Wistar’s Gene Expression and Regulation Program and corresponding author of the study. “Therapeutic approaches based on the ARID1A mutation have the potential to revolutionize the way we treat these patients.”

Read more about the research and about JKTG’s cancer research collaborative at Wistar.