Project Description:

Dr Simon Chu’s Hormone Cancer Therapeutics team at Hudson Institute of Medical Research is working with collaborators to improve outcomes for women with hormonally active granulosa cell tumours (GCT) – a rare type of ovarian cancer. Granulosa cell tumours (GCT) arise from granulosa cells (GC) of the ovarian follicle and represent a specific subset of malignant ovarian tumours with an unexplained propensity for late recurrence; ~80% of patients with aggressive or recurrent tumours die from their disease. At present there are no reliable methods for predicting relapse and, aside from surgery, no therapeutic modalities have proven effective. Therefore, it is critically important to understand the impact of this unique ovarian cancer on women afflicted with the disease and address their lack of options by identifying the molecular mechanisms contributing to the pathogenesis of GCT.

The project to combat ovarian GCT received MRFF from 2020-2024 with supplementary funding from the OCRF. Dr Chu says the grant will allow the team to build on progress already made from research previously funded by the OCRF in understanding and fighting GCT, which accounts for 5-10 per cent of ovarian cancers and can occur at any age.