The OSUCCC – James is proud to join another great team by working with the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and NCAA Women’s Basketball to fight endometrial (uterine) cancer through a new $100,000 grant presented March 28 at the Women’s Final Four in Columbus. The Kay Yow Cancer Fund was founded in 2007 from the vision of Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women’s basketball coach. The fund’s focus is to end women’s cancers.
David Cohn, MD, chief medical officer of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, and director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, accepted the grant on behalf of his research colleagues in the division and at the OSUCCC – James, as well as at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH).
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic cancer in the developed world and the fourth most common cancer among women in the United States, with over 63,000 diagnoses expected in 2018. While most women with EC have a favorable prognosis following hysterectomy, some patients have a poor outcome.
Identification of factors that predict poor outcome has been elusive, but with an expanded knowledge of the genetic basis of cancer, researchers have begun exploring molecular prognostic factors—the genetic signature of the cancer that may predict outcome.
The grant will enable the OSUCCC – James and NCH team to test the genetic signature of a large sampling of women with EC and correlate this signature with clinical outcome. Identifying the signature that predicts outcome will allow for a more refined approach to determining which women might benefit from additional therapy following hysterectomy to improve survival and quality of life.