Ovarian Cancer SPORE Grant

Awarded: July 2009
Amount: $11.5 million over five years
Principal Investigator: Lynn Hartmann, M.D.
Co-Principal Investigator: Scott Kaufmann, M.D., Ph.D.

"A'cadia" - 2008, Eunice Hill
Quilts of the Women's Cancer Program

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is one of only five cancer centers to receive a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for ovarian cancer research. Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic malignancies – the American Cancer Society reports that in 2009 about 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and nearly 15,000 women will die from this disease.

While treatment advances over the last 30 years have led to small improvements in the average length of survival after diagnosis, the overall cure rate is unchanged. The persistent high mortality rate associated with ovarian cancer derives from several factors, including:

• Poor understanding of underlying tumor biology
• Lack of viable targets for screening, imaging, and therapeutics
• Few early symptoms provide no reliable screening strategy
• Majority of women (65-70 percent) are diagnosed with an advance stage of disease
• Ultimate development of chemo-resistant disease, despite initial chemo-sensitivity (apparent response to treatment) of most ovarian cancers

Drs. Hartmann and Kaufmann have established a program that consists of a strong pool of investigators, partnerships across disciplines, an exceptional biospecimens repository with thorough clinical annotation, access to novel therapeutic approaches, and an environment designed to perform innovative clinical trials. The Ovarian SPORE draws upon unique resources at Mayo Clinic to address several key challenges of this disease. The investigators are examining important questions in the origin and development of ovarian cancer, emphasizing the translational utility of these findings to identify new targets for therapy and imaging. Team members are building on a decade of work to further a promising approach to circumventing platinum resistance. Moreover, they are exploring another very novel therapeutic strategy, virotherapy, building on an ongoing clinical trial in ovarian cancer that has shown early evidence that the disease is responding to treatment.

The purpose of the Mayo Clinic Ovarian SPORE is to stimulate and facilitate rigorous translational research in ovarian cancer — work that will take new basic and population science discoveries and convert them to improved interventions for women with ovarian cancer. In addition, this program seeks to attract investigators new to this field and offer them the infrastructure, resources, and knowledge necessary for successful careers in ovarian cancer research.

Vital to the SPORE is the underlying foundation of the Ovarian Research Group at Mayo, led by Dr. Hartmann since 1995. This group provides the base for fruitful interactions between basic scientists, population scientists, and clinical investigators. Patient advocates are also invaluable members of the SPORE team, bringing unique experiences and perspectives, and providing input through the Patient Advocate Advisory Committee. Another important feature is the network of already existing SPOREs within Mayo (Brain, Breast, Pancreas, Prostate, Lymphoma [with University of Iowa], and Myeloma [in collaboration with Dana Farber]) that contribute expertise, resources, and advocacy input from which the Ovarian SPORE can draw and benefit.

For more information on the ovarian SPORE program, please visit these links:

• Ovarian SPORE Core Resources
• Ovarian SPORE Developmental Programs
• Ovarian SPORE Patient Advocacy
• Ovarian SPORE Projects