The Ovarian Cancer Academy: Realizing the Vision

Ovarian Cancer Research Program introduced the academy for two different reasons. Number one, ovarian cancer scientists or researchers is a very small pool of scientists. There are not many people who are, who were, engaged only in ovarian cancer research. So, people used to work on breast cancer, prostate cancer…there is a big pull of money, so they were more interested, and they used to do ovarian cancer as a side business. Now, in 2009, the panel decided that we need to bring people and sustain them, so this is why the academy, this academy, started. And the second reason is that, to retain them.

So, it's not that they're going to work on ovarian cancer today and then go off and work on lung and other cancers later. This is a group of people that really wants to make the centerpiece of their career, the focus, on ovarian cancer. And I think, again, for patients, that's ultimately what you want.

As a young investigator, it's difficult, obviously, to get funding. And ovarian cancer, which is often defined as a rare tumor, even more difficult to come into a field where there's not as many translational scientists in that field. And so, the academy can provide a network and a basis to launch careers, and also to keep people in the field, so that we can retain some of the best and the brightest people to help the difficult challenge of curing ovarian cancer.

So, we want to also provide them with leadership skills. They are the next generation of leaders, but they don't necessarily know that yet. There's different skill sets to doing, in addition to running your lab and training, I mean, how do you navigate that, those fields? And then we're also, most importantly, really want to engage them with patient advocates at every level and not just at a once-a-year meeting, but to try to keep them engaged throughout the course of the year.

What we really needed to do was make absolutely sure that they succeeded. Succeeded in their publications, their research topics, knowing the field, benefiting from the foundation of knowledge that was already available, and passing that along to the next generation. And so that's when the Ovarian Cancer Academy was born, and I think, to a large extent, we've succeeded in these early stages, and so I think that we're on the right trajectory.

What one of my mentors said to me is, if you just surround yourself with good people and let them go, their success becomes your success. And so, I tried to do that at the academy, I tried to do that in my current position, try to just, you know, help everyone develop to their fullest potential, and as a whole and as a group we can travel very far.

I think it's really building the nucleus. It is really building the nucleus now, to get that critical mass, and to take the smartest and brightest of the bright, and not just fund them and then say goodbye. I mean, this is this is a lifelong network and a lifelong partnership. It's developing the leaders for the cancer centers. For the departments. Developing the leaders in our professional organizations that can then intersperse with Capitol Hill and change policy. So, it really is more than just funding a grant, and I think that's the biggest take-home message. It's far more than just funding a grant or funding a young investigator; it's a commitment to those people, to develop them into the leadership in ovarian cancer, wherever that falls, whether it's NCI advisory roles, whether it's policy, whether it's working as a cancer center director, and really making sure that ovarian cancer focus is upfront.

After we started Ovarian Cancer Academy, five different CDMRP programs, they introduced academy in their program, so we are like a, you know, trendsetter in that way.

Science has gotten more complicated. We have tremendous tools now that we didn't have before. Technology has advanced at an incredible pace, but for the same reason I think it's very difficult for any one individual, any one institution, to be able to tackle the really tough questions. And by having a global network, we are able to connect these early-career investigators with experts in the field, with each other. I think it is a huge benefit.

The Ovarian Cancer Academy fosters collaboration. I think it's one of the basic tenants of the academy, and that's really important, because historically people would often work in silos and compete against each other. But in fact, by working together, again, the whole could be much greater than the sum of the parts. You can find the people who make your science better, you can help them, and it's a win-win situation.

A lot of our different scientists who are expert in different fields of technology, engineering, cell-based models, all those kinds of things. 'Cause these are the challenges, the scientific challenges, and this is where we need to grow the knowledge base, from the next generation, that's very helpful.

There's great synergy when you not only work together but train together. Your learning experiences are synergistic. You see the same problem, perhaps, with different perspectives, but you can all come together effectively and efficiently working on similar research problems, and obviously those problems get solved much more effectively and quickly.

The Ovarian Cancer Academy does have a grant mentorship program. So, there's a virtual review board, and I think that's been very helpful to get feedback, you know, on proposals before they go in for competitive funding. And I think, in the future, when you learn early on how to write a good proposal, how to tell a good story, I think it really helps your funding.

We've had several examples now of ECIs that have taken the mock study sections’ advice, and they got their own grants funded, and that's as exciting to me as seeing one of my own grants get funded, to see them receive their first RO1 from the NIH. And you get these emails, they're so, you know, so excited about this, and Ronnie and I and everybody else are just like, man, that just…because they're getting feedback and valuations of the best, you know, some of the best people in the field, but it just validates how meaningful their work is and how meaningful their contributions are to the field. The funding helps a tremendous amount. A four-year, large award, like the DOD provides, and plus the academy provides more additional seed money to help, you know, get some projects off the ground, maybe high-risk projects that other extramural funding agencies would not support. DOD is known to be high-risk and high impact, and the academy continues on in that vein.

The vision to do the academies was transformational, and what we saw today is really the return on investment. We build these young people and train them to, to dedicate careers in ovarian cancer, and we build a network that then they can interact with each other, share knowledge, share resources, share a lot of different things, which has really amped up the output. We've done that on the basic translational science component, and now we're embarking on that in the clinical component, which, to me, as a clinician and clinical trialist, is probably one of the most exciting components of this evolution in OCRP.

We are blessed that the entire community is behind us, especially the patient advocacy groups. They are fantastic. They are very united, and we have a great rapport, great communication with them, and also scientific community. So, as a whole, I have a very high hope that we can actually surpass a lot of challenges.

Back in 2009, 2010, pre-COVID, the notion of having a virtual training program was not something that rolled off the tongues of everyone. There are many people, in fact, at the time, were cynical that this would be a successful program, thought it might be a flash in the pan type of thing, and I do think that that's been demonstrated not only to be incorrect, but that the CDMRP was really visionary, and that, through their vision, transformative in the field of medical research training, and I'm grateful to have been a part of that.