Mayo Clinic Awarded Major Grant for Ovarian Cancer Research

Mayo Clinic Awarded Major Grant for Ovarian Cancer Research

May 22, 2010

Investigators at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center received a five-year, $11.5 million grant to translate research into treatments for women with ovarian cancer.

Every year in the United States, more than 16,000 women die from the disease and another 22,000 are diagnosed, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award from the NCI is called a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant. It is the seventh SPORE grant that Mayo has received to support cancer research.

"The Mayo Ovarian Cancer SPORE is uniquely poised to address key challenges in ovarian cancer," says Lynn Hartmann, M.D., lead investigator of the newly awarded SPORE. "Our balance of basic, population science and clinical research programs within the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center enables us to pursue major issues in ovarian cancer, such as chemotherapy resistance, and quickly move new approaches into the clinic."

During the past 30 years, improved treatment options for women with ovarian cancer have extended the average length of survival after diagnosis, but the ultimate cure rate has not changed significantly.