Ovarian Cancer Symposium focuses on translation of research into new therapies
Penn State College of Medicine’s Gynecologic Malignancies Group hosted its second Ovarian Cancer Symposium on World Ovarian Cancer Day, May 8, 2019.
The event was designed to provide the audience of researchers, clinician-scientists, health care workers and patients with an overview of current advancements in the field of ovarian cancer research and translational medicine that promise new therapeutic avenues for the disease.
Speakers included:
- Dineo Khabele, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Cancer Biology, Vice Chair for Research OB/GYN, and Director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Kansas, presented “Expanding PARP Inhibitor Efficacy in Ovarian Cancer with Epigenetic Drugs.”
- June Y. Hou, MD, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of Precision Medicine Initiative and Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Program, Columbia University, presented “Insights into the molecular building blocks of ovarian cancer: Exploiting new opportunities and strategies.”
- Katherine Aird, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Penn State College of Medicine, presented “Exploiting metabolic pathways to sensitize ovarian cancers to PARP inhibitors.”
- George-Lucian Moldovan, PhDM, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Penn State College of Medicine, presented “Novel mechanisms regulating the response of BRCA-mutant tumors to genotoxic chemotherapy.”
Symposium chairs were Nadine Hempel, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, and Rebecca Phaeton, MD, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Microbiology and Immunology, both of Penn State College of Medicine.
The meeting concluded with lunch and an interactive molecular tumor board session, in which plenary speakers and the audience discussed how to decide the best possible treatment options for patients in the context of novel molecular tumor markers and genetic testing. This session was hosted by Joshua Warrick, MD, and Joshua Kesterson, MD, both of Penn State College of Medicine.
Poster sessions were part of the event during breaks; Penn State Health Center for Women’s Health Research presented awards for two posters – one to Yeon Soo Kim, a student in the Biomedical Sciences PhD Program, and the other to Kristen Clements, a student in the MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program pursuing her PhD in biomedical sciences.
The event was supported by the Sue Alexander Tressler Memorial Research Fund, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Health Center for Women’s Health Research and Penn State Cancer Institute.
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