Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Cancer Research (bridge funding)

Ovarian cancer remains an important health problem for women. The Canadian Cancer Statistics estimate 2,500 new cases and 1,500 deaths will be reported per annum in Canada. Ovarian cancer has the highest fatality rate of any gynecologic cancer and is the most common cause of death from cancers of the female genital track. The fatality rates results in part from the frequent diagnoses of epithelial type of ovarian cancer at advanced stages where therapeutic options are limited. Despite recent advances in ovarian cancer 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 ovarian cancer. Using a novel strategy which involves 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. This grant proposal describes experiments involved in the discovery and characterization of the genes involved in the suppression of ovarian cancer tumor growth and establish its contribution to ovarian cancer. Our expertise, the ovarian cancer cell line model systems and ovarian cancer tumor banks that we have developed place us in a strong position to both identify and establish the clinical relevance of chromosome 3 genes in ovarian cancer.