The Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation, announced a $50,000 donation in 2013 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, to support two research projects.
In one of the projects, Dr. Stephanie Gaillard, MD, PhD at the Duke Cancer Institute, focuses on addressing the issue that long-term clinical outcomes for women diagnosed with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer have not significantly improved in the last 20 years. In the other, Dr. Martin Matzuk, MD, PhD, at Baylor College of Medicine, addresses the issue of no specific screening tests for ovarian cancer.
The donations follow the 2012 donation of $25,000 by the DOCF, to Dr, Sharmistha Sarkar, PhD at the M.D Anderson Cancer Center, to help fund her study in.to “Finding a Marker to Detect Early Stage Ovarian Cancer.
More than 70% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will relapse after initial treatment with surgery and traditional chemotherapy, and most women will ultimately die of their disease. Patients with advanced stage tumors (~75%) have a 5-year survival rate of 30% As the disease progresses, the tumors become more resistant to multiple types of chemotherapy resulting in devastating symptoms, decreased quality of life, and poor survival rates.
The mission of the Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation is threefold: to increase ovarian cancer awareness and education about ovarian cancer among women and healthcare professionals in Delaware and the surrounding vicinity, to support women affected by ovarian cancer, and to promote research in the fight against this deadly women’s disease.
The Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation (DOCF), a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2009 by Dorianne Short, an ovarian cancer survivor, diagnosed in 2003. The DOCF has been raising funds to support its mission primarily through its two key events, the Teal Ribbon 5K in May, and the Teal Ribbon Luncheon and Silent Auction, during National Ovarian Cancer Month in September. For more information visit the DOCF website at: http://deovariancancer.org/about_docf
