Ovarian Cancer Research Program of BC

Today we have access to next generation sequencers that have the capacity to fully decode a cancer within one week. Therefore we can engage in research that would have been unfathomably complex and expensive even twelve months ago. Up until now, genomic technologies could only provide cancer researchers an impressionist type portrait of the skewed physiology of cancers.

OvCaRe has been a world leader in the application of new technologies to ovarian carcinoma. In a very recent project our team has shown the first clinically relevant discovery obtained from the use of these technologies in any cancer. In that project we identified a mutation that defines granuolosa cell tumours, an up till now mysterious subtype of ovarian cancer that had no effective diagnosis and no treatment other than surgery. We plan now to apply this technology to other subtypes of ovarian cancer.

OvCaRe has over the past seven years built up a formidable resource for the validation of potential discoveries. With further support we will validate our own in-house discoveries as opposed to those coming from other centres. This is important as OvCaRe would have the potential to operate in a complete bed-to-bedside spectrum of activities with the development of clinical trials based on OvCaRe genomic discoveries being the metric through which OvCaRe success will be judged over the next three to five years. Through these trials we would hope to change the way ovarian cancer is controlled internationally.

Dr. David Huntsman, Co-Founder and Acting Director, OvCaRe