New Approach to Targeting Serous Ovarian Cancer
Abstract
Our proposal focuses on a novel approach to target ovarian cancer and the particularly deadly high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). In the United States, half of women with ovarian cancer, including military Service Members, Veterans, retirees, or their family members, die within 5 years of diagnosis, and 70-80% of these deaths are from HGSOC. HGSOC contains a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene called p53 that makes the ovarian cancer cells more aggressive, have unstable genomes, and resistant to multiple therapies. Therefore, increased research efforts to identify vulnerabilities in HGSOC cells and testing of new treatment approaches using this knowledge to improve patient survival rates are needed. Our proposed project emerged from a paradigm-shifting discovery we recently made. We propose to investigate a newly identified ovarian cancer cell vulnerability and a novel approach of targeting this vulnerability. We designed a new class of compounds to specifically target and degrade a protein that our data indicate is necessary for HGSOC cell survival, causing the ovarian cancer cells to die. We will perform multiple experiments to test this and the new compounds. Completion of the research proposed will result in increased understanding of a new vulnerability we identified in mutant p53 ovarian cancer cells, testing of new compounds that target this vulnerability, and preclinical tests with the compounds on serous ovarian cancer. The long-term goal of these studies is to have a more effective treatment approach for military Service Members, Veterans, retirees, their family members, and other women with HGSOC.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 05, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2110303
Entities
People
- Christine Eischen
Organizations
- Thomas Jefferson University
- United States Army