Christiana Care Health System received a gift of $100,000 from The Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation (DOCF) to support ovarian cancer tissue research.
The gift will enable the health system’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute to advance its translational research program in ovarian cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer ranks fifth among all cancer deaths for women and is the leading cause of death among gynecologic cancers. In 2016, more than 22,000 women will be newly diagnosed with the disease and 14,000 women will die from it. Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed after it has advanced. Mortality rates at that time are much higher.
“Christiana Care has long offered ovarian cancer clinical trials, and with DOCF’s generous support we can now begin important translational research on this elusive and hard to detect cancer,” said Mark E. Borowsky, M.D., director, division of gynecologic oncology at the Graham Cancer Center. “This gift will allow us to jump-start translational research by creating a biorepository of diverse tissue samples for basic laboratory research. In time, what we learn at the bench can translate into new therapies that we’ll bring directly to the patient’s bedside.”
Over the next two years, Dr. Borowksy’s team will build a bank of ovarian tissues and serums collected from Christiana Care patients. It will also hire a researcher to oversee the process of procuring and analyzing these samples and creating a database of clinical information—such as surgical and chemotherapy responses and cancer recurrence times—from women receiving ovarian cancer care. The bank of ovarian tissues will allow researchers to conduct tumor molecular profiling and DNA sequencing. When they can identify and understand different mutations, they then will be able to target treatments.
“Women across the state turn to the Graham Cancer Center for its excellent care and compassionate people,” said ovarian cancer survivor Dorianne Short, who founded DOCF in 2009. “We are excited to help Christiana Care with ovarian cancer research that will someday lead to more effective screenings and treatments, which are so desperately needed.” This is the foundation’s first major gift to Christiana Care for research.
“The Graham Cancer Center is already deeply engaged in translational breast, colon, radiation and tissue research at our Center for Translational Cancer Research. Now, thanks to generous support from DCOF, we will expand this work to include ovarian cancer,” said Nicholas J. Petrelli, M.D., FACS, Bank of America endowed medical director of the Graham Cancer Center. “Our partnership with DOCF illustrates how philanthropy can drive scientific inquiry and underscores the health system’s promise to serve as expert, caring partners in our community’s health.”
The Center for Translational Cancer Research is a collaboration among the health system, University of Delaware, Nemours/A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children, Rice University/Bio-Science Research Collaborative and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and other partners.
