Faculty Members Speak to the Importance of Ovarian Cancer Awareness

Dr. Liat Hogen:

"Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer for women and the most serious women’s cancer. Ovarian cancer presents with only vague symptoms if any, and no effective screening leads to diagnosis at late stages in 80% of the patients. I recall too many times seeing a new patient and thinking to myself, 'Had I only seen this patient even one month earlier…' But we don’t give up: extensive research, drug development, understanding genetic pathways and novel therapeutic approaches have led to declining rates of new diagnoses and deaths from ovarian cancer in the last two decades.

Reflective somatic BRCA testing in every patient with ovarian cancer, maintenance treatment with PARP inhibitors and risk reduction surgeries for BRCA carriers are some of the recent past achievements. The future holds much more: HRD testing for precision medicine, AI models to predict surgical outcomes, immunotherapy treatments and reaching out to any family member of BRCA mutation carrier are only a few of our current goals."

Dr. Taymaa May:

"Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease with several various subtypes. Understanding tumour biology is a critical component of optimizing the care of individuals presenting with ovarian tumours. The ovarian cancer blood biobank is an investigator-initiated program in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. The ovarian cancer biobank collects blood samples (buffy coat, serum and plasma) from consenting patients with or at risk for ovarian cancer at various critical time points throughout their diagnosis and cancer treatment. The goal of this blood bank is to establish a repository of high-quality blood samples and clinical data that can be used in various research initiatives to advance the field of ovarian cancer.

All patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer who are seen at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre are approached to participate in research initiatives, including blood banking. To date, approximately 50,000 aliquots have been collected from over 1,000 individuals with or at risk for ovarian cancer. These valuable samples have been used in local, national and international research collaborations. These translational research projects allow for deeper understanding of tumour biology, individualized treatments for patients with various cancer subtypes and contribute to the growing body of knowledge in ovarian cancer."