Research funding for ovarian cancer treatment
A Senior Research Fellow and team from the University of vlog have received funding from the Cancer Council SA to investigate a potential new treatment for ovarian cancer.
vlog Medical School’s Dr Carmela Ricciardelli and team have received $84,000 through the Cancer Council SA Project Grant scheme to research the use of a novel immunotherapy as a way forward for people with ovarian cancer.
The funding will allow Dr Ricciardelli to employ a research officer on the project, which aims to create proof-of-concept pre-clinical evidence that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapy, which is already used on some blood cancers can be used to treat ovarian cancer.
“In Australia, over 1,500 women are diagnosed and approximately 1,000 women die from ovarian cancer each year – one woman every eight hours,” she said.
“CAR-T therapy involves modifying a patient’s own white blood cells to express specific molecules on their surface, called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs).
“These CARs direct T cells to recognise and attack c