September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

join with the aacr to find better ways to prevent and treat ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is a malignancy of the almond-shaped organs in the female reproductive system that produce eggs and certain hormones. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States.

Ovarian cancer occurs in three types:

Ovarian epithelial cancer begins in the tissue covering the ovary, in the lining of the fallopian tube, or in the peritoneum.
Ovarian germ cell tumors start in the eggs, also known as germ cells.
Ovarian low malignant potential tumors begin in the tissue covering the ovary. Abnormal cells are present that may become cancer, but usually do not.

Ovarian epithelial cancer is closely related to cancers of the fallopian tubes (which deliver eggs from the ovaries to the uterus) and the peritoneum (which lines the abdominal wall and covers the abdominal organs), and all three cancers are diagnosed and treated in the same way.

Ovarian cancer may cause nonspecific symptoms, such as abdominal swelling or pain, or no symptoms at all. Further, no screening tests to date have been shown to decrease the rate of death from ovarian cancer. As a result, ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. The five-year relative survival rate is 50.9%.

About 1.1% of women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer at some point in their lifetimes, according the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Approximately 19,680 women in the United States will receive a diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2024, according to SEER estimates. Furthermore, approximately 12,740 women will die from the disease.

Family history and inherited gene mutations such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 are among the risk factors for ovarian cancer. Others include obesity, endometriosis, and the use of hormone replacement therapy.

One Woman’s Story

Jackie VanRaaphorst of Snoqualmie, Washington, received “every possible treatment” for her ovarian cancer, only to have the cancer come back. When the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug, mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx (Elahere), in 2022, she “jumped through many hoops” to get it. She says she has seen “remarkable” progress. Read her story in the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2023.

WHAT THE AACR IS DOING IN OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH

Sponsoring Scientific Meetings

On September 20-21, 2024, the Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer and the AACR are presenting the 15th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium in Seattle, Washington. Researchers and clinicians from around the world will hear the latest developments in therapeutics, immune-oncology, tumor microenvironment, early detection, prevention, and more.
In October 2023, the AACR presented its sixth biennial Special Conference on Ovarian Cancer in Boston, Massachusetts. The AACR’s blog, Cancer Research Catalyst, published an interview with one of the co-chairs of this conference to discuss the highlights.

Supporting Research Grants

The AACR has recently awarded research grants to investigators pursuing promising research in ovarian and related cancers.

In 2023, a Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia and the AACR, went to Sarah E. Johnstone, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The award supports her study of “The impact of architectural protein disruption on the 3D cancer genome” in ovarian and uterine cancer.
Also in 2023, Mary Mullen, MD, Washington University in St. Louis, received a Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia and the AACR. Her topic is “Targeting platinum chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.”
The AACR and AstraZeneca awarded an Ovarian Cancer Research Fellowship to Ksenija Nesic, PhD, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia, in 2022. Her study is “CRISPR screens to find novel targets to overcome PARP inhibitor resistance.”
Anna Salvioni, PharmD, PhD, Cancer University Institute of Toulouse Oncopole, received a 2022 AACR-AstraZeneca Ovarian Cancer Research Fellowship for research on “HRD effect on T-cell exhaustion in ovarian cancer.”
The 2022 AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Immuno-oncology Research Fellowship was awarded to Sung-Min Hwang, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine. His study is “Decoding ER stress signaling in ovarian cancer-reactive T cells.”
Martina McDermott, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, received a 2022 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia and the AACR. She is researching “Preclinical development of a novel anti-CLDN16 ADC for ovarian cancer.”
A 2022 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia and the AACR, went to Shuang Zhang, PhD, The Third Affiliated Hospital at Guangzhou Medical University in China. Her project is “Identification of epithelial stem cell markers in fallopian tube and HGSC.”