Ovarian cancers have historically suffered from generic treatment and prevention approaches that do not account for biologic and clinical differences between subtypes and research conducted without consideration of histotype, making interpretation of results and knowledge translation challenging. Using this subtype-specific approach, one of the key areas of my research program is to prevent disease by studying precursor lesions of ovarian cancer. Using genomic approaches, we are exploring the transformation events that lead to the transformation of endometriosis into clear cell and endometrioid cancers, the 2nd and 3rd most common ovarian cancer histotypes. The goal is to develop a risk model to identify women with endometriosis who are at increased risk of developing cancers. We are also studying the potential cells of origin for endometriosis-associated cancers through profiling the mutations found in ciliated and secretory cells of the endometrium.
Biologically Informed Prevention Strategies for Ovarian Cancer
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