Grant: Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program

Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage when treatment options are limited, and it can be tough to treat with standard chemotherapy. Immunotherapy, which uses the body's immune system to fight cancer, has been successful in other types of cancer, but it doesn't work well for ovarian cancer patients. One reason for this is that ovarian cancer cells can evade the immune system by reducing the expression of certain molecules that are important for the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. Ovarian tumours are made up of different types of cancer cells, which we call epitypes. Each type of cell may reduce the expression of these important molecules in different ways. We have identified three of these epitypes that change in response to treatment and are linked to patient outcomes. By understanding how these different types of cells interact with the immune system, we hope to develop better, more targeted immunotherapies. Our project, which takes an innovative approach, aims to study large sets of tumour samples to explore how these different types of cells can evade the immune system. We plan to use new technology and patient tissues to build a detailed picture of how these cells and immune cells interact. Our findings could help in developing new immunotherapies that target specific types of cells, ultimately improving outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer.