Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) 5 th commonest cause of female - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC)

• 5th commonest cause of female cancer

death

• 1300 new cases in Australia per year
• Patients with extensive disease can have

surgery

• Most patients disease returns within 2-5

years

• Desperate need for more effective

treatment & appropriate screening

Associate Professor John Hooper

Multi-disciplinary, collaborative cancer research model

Doctors

• Surgeons
• Pathologists
• Medical Oncologists
• Radiation Oncologists
• Palliative Care Physicians

Biomedical Researchers Allied health support Nurses Collaborative Research Mental health professionals Clinical trials

Patients

How to cure patients who have advanced cancer? How to increase the quality of life of patients who have advanced cancer? How to increase the quantity of life of patients who have advanced cancer?

Specimens utilised for research:

“surplus to diagnostic requirements”

Tissue Ascites EDTA blood Saliva

Patient sample journey

Cell culture experiments

CLINICAL TRIALS

Animal models Gene maps

SURGERY

We aim to develop treatments that overcome the cancer cell’s control of its environment

lymph node tumour cells killer T cells leukapheresis DC precursor Cancer target loading “danger signals” mature DC

vaccination

Improve response to chemotherapy Develop effective vaccines Improve response to drugs blocking cancer blood vessels Observe treatment effects on genes and use as predictors of response

IMPROVE SURVIVAL

• 5 YEAR GOALS:
• Efficient execution of focused experiments with surgical specimens
• Communicate our findings
• Obtain funding for recruitment of key staff
• Expand funding for project work
• Expand local, national and international collaborations
• Translate our findings via clinical trials
• Translate our findings via strategic links with pharmaceutical

companies

Mater Ovarian Cancer Research Collaborative (MOCRC)

Thank you