Grant: Operating Grant

Ovarian cancer remains an important health problem for women. In 2009, the Canadian Cancer Statistics estimated that there will be 2500 new cases and 1750 deaths reported per year in Canada. Ovarian cancer has the highest fatality rate of any gynecologic cancer due to the frequent diagnoses of the epithelial type of ovarian cancer at advanced stages where therapeutic options are limited. Despite advances in research, knowledge about the disease origins and its progression remain unknown. Our research group has focused on the collection of ovarian cancer specimens and related normal tissues and the development of models to study the disease in order to understand the genetic events associated with ovarian cancer. One focus of our research has been the investigation of genetic abnormalities found with chromosome number 3. Our research suggests that a number of genes located on this chromosome are involved in cancer. Using an unique strategy involving the transfer of normal chromosome 3 fragments into an ovarian cancer cell line defective in chromosome 3, we have shown that the ovarian cancer cell line is no longer capable of forming tumors. Our analysis points to a specific chromosome 3 region containing a gene called VGLL3. We have circumstantial evidence that this protein is absent or present at very low levels in ovarian cancers (as well as the original cell line used in our experiments) and thus that it expression may be affecting the ability of cells to form tumors. This grant proposal describes experiments involved in the discovery and characterization of new genes involved in the suppression of ovarian cancer tumor growth and the establishment of their contribution to ovarian cancer. The identification of the underlying 3p genes warrants further investigation, as it has the potential to discover biological pathways that could be suitable for therapeutic intervention of epithelial ovarian cancer for which overall 5 year survival remains dismal.