Advancing Ovarian Cancer Treatment: Innovations in Precision Medicine

 Advancing Ovarian Cancer Treatment:

Innovations in Precision Medicine

Image showing biomarkers present for Ovarian Cancer Detection 

Personalized medicine has changed how we treat cancer by customizing therapies based on a patient's genetics. While this approach has shown remarkable success in certain cancers, ovarian cancer presents unique challenges due to the lack of specific biomarkers.

Dr. Erin George, a specialist at Moffitt Cancer Center, is working on a new method to tackle this challenge. She's using microscopic 3D models of ovarian tumors grown outside the body to find targeted therapies for each patient.

Here's how it works: Samples of tumors are taken during surgery or biopsy. These samples are then turned into many tiny tumor pieces called microtumors, which are grown in special plates. These plates, named Darcy Plates, which were engineered by Dr. Greg Sawyer, help the microtumors grow and allow researchers to test different drugs.

What's fascinating about Dr. George's approach is incorporating the patient's immune cells into the tumor microenvironment—a crucial element often overlooked in traditional cancer models. This innovative approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of how ovarian tumors interact with the immune system, paving the way for potential immunotherapies.

At a recent cancer research meeting, Dr. George and Dr. Sawyer shared their findings from studying five patients' tumors.They're collecting more samples to study treatments for different stages of ovarian cancer.They've already gathered samples from 27 patients, including those who had chemotherapy, surgery, or cancer come back. Next, they'll use these models to test different treatments and find the best ones for each patient.

Ovarian cancer is tough to beat, with a 50% survival rate over five years. It remains the most deadly gynecologic malignancy largely because it’s generally diagnosed at a late stage and has a high rate of recurrence. But Dr. George and Dr. Sawyer’s work offers hope for better outcomes in the future of ovarian cancer treatments!

Citations and To learn more, read this article!: https://endeavor.moffitt.org/archive/tackling-ovarian-cancer-by-studying-it-outside-the-body