Transforming Health Care through Innovative and Impactful Research

September 26, 2024

Congress first dedicated appropriations for ovarian cancer research in FY97, establishing the Ovarian Cancer Research Program. In FY24, Congress appropriated $45 million to the OCRP to support patient-centered research to prevent, detect, treat and cure ovarian cancer to enhance the well-being of all women impacted by this disease.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer for females and is the deadliest form of gynecologic cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates as of 2021, more than 230,000 females in the United States live with ovarian cancer. The five-year survival rate is a mere 50%, and an estimated 13,000 women will die in 2024 from this disease. Survival rates after initial treatment remains unchanged over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2019, nearly 23,000 DOD beneficiaries received care for ovarian cancer within the military health system.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND OVARIAN CANCER, BEYOND THE PHYSICAL IMPACT OF DISEASE

OCRP funds innovative and paradigm-shifting research aimed at tackling the most clinically relevant problems of the field. For ovarian cancer patients, initial diagnosis and the possibility or confirmation of recurrent disease after remission leave lasting impacts beyond the physical body, including higher risk of mental illness.

“There are psychological and financial, socioeconomic costs,” Jackie Smith, a peer reviewer for the OCRP in FY23 and FY24, said.

Smith, who is an ovarian cancer survivor, adds her lived experiences as expertise on the panel when reviewing proposed research.

For those affected by ovarian cancer, like Smith, research that leads to innovative strategies for treatment is key to improving survivorship and longer-term quality of life.

“There are opportunities out there and technologies that would remove [surgery and chemotherapy] completely from the equation and allow women to be treated in a way with much fewer side effects,” Smith said.

An FY18 OCRP-funded study, led by Jogender Tushir-Singh, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis hypothesized improved ovarian cancer treatments that achieve remission without recurrence will benefit military women and their Families diagnosed with ovarian cancer and disease-related PTSD.

According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 7 of 10 people with ovarian cancer experience a recurrence after surgery and chemotherapy.

Tushir-Singh and his team developed an antibody, a type of protein naturally produced by the body’s immune system, to stimulate the immune response and inhibit cancerous cell growth. In particular, this antibody is bispecific, targeting two distinct receptors often found in increased numbers on the surface of ovarian cancer cells. Binding of the bi-specific-anchored cytotoxicity- activator, or BaCa, antibody to the cell surface receptors blocks two cancer-causing pathways and eliminates tumor cells.

Tushir-Singh expanded his initial findings by characterizing important antibody-binding regions on ovarian cancer-associated cell receptors. These findings may contribute to improved targeted treatments that could reduce the need for intensive treatments, like chemotherapy, associated with debilitating side effects.

In FY20, the OCRP awarded a Teal Expansion Award to Laura Kubzansky, Ph.D., at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. This award focuses on understanding how PTSD influences a woman’s body, including the timing of how psychological distress can potentially increase the likelihood of developing ovarian cancer.

Kubzanksy and her team’s recent findings indicate a connection between multiple types of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and even PTSD, and increased risk for ovarian cancer.

Moving forward with this project, the team will consider if distress can weaken the immune system’s ability to respond to tumor growth. Further, the team will consider if systemic inflammation, or inflammation throughout the whole body, might be a pathway leading to ovarian cancer. Understanding how stress weakens the immune system may enlighten researchers as to what causes ovarian cancer and allow researchers to suggest improved preventative measures.

COMMUNITY MEMBER PERSPECTIVES DRIVE RESEARCH INNOVATION

A hallmark of the OCRP is the partnership among ovarian cancer survivors, scientists, and clinicians. The disease survivors bring their unique perspective and the human dimension of the disease into the OCRP’s areas of research focus to encourage funding recommendations that reflect the concerns of ovarian cancer community and their families, as well as the clinicians who treat them.

"Participation is a hopeful endeavor," Smith said about her time working alongside scientists. "This is their life's work, and we're grateful for it."

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