For years, scientists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center have devoted themselves to research to better understand ovarian cancer. Now, teams of researchers from these two leading centers are combining efforts after together securing a nearly $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop new and better treatments for ovarian cancer.
Kirsten Moysich, PhD, MS
Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD
The funds come from a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant awarded to Roswell Park to support collaborative research across the two centers. The research team will be led by principal investigators Kirsten Moysich, PhD, MS, Distinguished Member and Professor of Oncology in the Departments of Immunology and Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park, and Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dean for Oncology in the Biological Sciences Division, and the AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Research Initiatives
There are two projects supported by the grant. One will examine the ovarian tumor microenvironment, looking for opportunities to “reprogram” this environment to have a more robust immune response to innovative therapies. The second project will include an early-phase clinical trial to test a new vaccination strategy.
Roswell Park remains the only ovarian cancer SPORE in New York State and one of only two centers in the Northeast to host a SPORE program in ovarian cancer. Likewise, the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only ovarian cancer SPORE in Illinois and in the entire Midwest. The nearly $9 million award will advance initiatives begun under a 2013 SPORE award for research in ovarian cancer awarded to Roswell Park.
