Download Dr. Matulonis began building the gynecologic oncology team at

Dr. Matulonis began building the gynecologic oncology team at
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute seven years ago, and the program
has grown tremendously in that time. Last year, six medical
oncologists and six surgical oncologists saw more than 3,700
patients. Since 2008, 10 clinical trials in recurrent ovarian cancer
research have been completed and closed; the team currently has
five open clinical studies for recurrent ovarian cancer. Dr.
Matulonis and her team are dedicated to advancing
groundbreaking research for ovarian cancer patients, and
because of the generosity of donors like you, they are able to
make progress every day toward eradicating this devastating disease.
Examples of Current Initiatives Supported by Diane's Fund:
Tissue Resource for Research (TRR) is a major priority for the gynecologic
oncology team. The TRR is currently the largest bank of breast tissue in the United
States and our ovarian cancer tissue samples are increasing quickly. Approximately
100 samples are collected annually, and the goal is to increase the ovarian cancer
collection to 200 per year. The main goals of collecting such tissue are to:

Analyze patient tissue before and after chemotherapy in order to significantly
increase researchers’ understanding of ovarian cancer tumor characteristics,
including those that have positive and negative responses to chemotherapy.

Identify which cellular pathways become activated after chemotherapy begins,
and are implicated in causing a patient to be resistant to treatment.
If the initial analyses of the tissue samples reveal known characteristics for which
tailored therapies already exist, a patient can immediately be treated with an
appropriate targeted therapy for her individual tumor. The TRR will allow for
specialized and novel research, including the propagation of ovarian cancers in mice,
which will lead to new trials of potential treatments.
Personalized medicine program in ovarian cancer: In collaboration with Harvard
Medical School, Dr. William Hahn and Dr. Matulonis have been studying the
different mutations in oncogenes, which are genes that have potential to cause cancer,
in order to detect “Achilles’ heel” defects in the cancers that may make them more
susceptible to certain targeted therapies. They have been able to identify several
mutations that could be important in treating ovarian cancer since drugs that target
these mutations are currently being tested in clinical trials.
Fallopian tube as the precursor for high grade serous ovarian cancer: Dr. Ronny
Drapkin, a member of Dr. Matulonis’ team, is collaborating with Dr. Chris Crum at
the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to study the fact that pre-cancers can be detected
in the end part of the fallopian tube (part closest to the ovary) in a majority of women
with high grade serous ovarian cancer. This could lead to a better understanding of
why ovarian cancer develops, provide future screening and prevention strategies, and
even help develop new targets and new therapies for ovarian cancer.