Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Cancer treatments can cause cells in our bodies to stop multiplying. This is called "senescence." In cancer, cells divide in an uncontrolled way, so senescence can be helpful by slowing down their growth. Our previous results have shown that this phenomenon is occurring in ovarian cancer and is linked with a better patient survival. Therefore, we think that using senescence in ovarian cancer could help improve treatments, and in turn increase survival. To study senescence, we took small pieces of tumors from patients and implanted them into mice. We treated the mice and waited 7 days before analyzing the tumors to look at the early response to treatment. Then, we conducted a longer experiment that involved multiple cycles of chemotherapy, lasting up to 21 days, to better simulate the treatment ovarian cancer patients typically receive. We successfully created four of these mice, representing four different patients. Our analysis of the tumors after the experiment showed that these mice accurately reflected how the patients responded to treatment. We also discovered that the response to treatment varied significantly between patients and within different cells from the same patient. We hope further analyses will reveal new targets to improve treatments and patient survival!