Ovarian Cancer: Prevention of the Disease and Its Recurrence

描述（由申请人提供）：卵巢癌是美国妇科恶性肿瘤中最常见的死亡原因，2010年导致13,850人死亡。大多数妇女在诊断时疾病已发展到晚期。尽管积极治疗，这些妇女的预后很差：5年生存率不到30%。这种糟糕的结果是由于缺乏有效的预防和早期发现策略：如果在早期诊断，存活率为85-90%。因此，预防和早期发现是战胜这种疾病的关键。然而，现有的预防方法很少，目前的筛查技术未能降低发病率或死亡率。因此，我们迫切需要找到更好的预防、检测和筛查方法。此外，由于这种疾病的毒性和通常致命的性质，大多数患有卵巢癌的妇女生活在对复发的恐惧中，这种情况发生在约85%的病例中。目前的治疗方法几乎没有希望，预防复发的研究也很有限。迫切需要预防、发现和治疗复发的新方法。在2002年和2005年NCI的资助下，我们举办了关于卵巢癌的专题讨论会，汇集了来自不同科学学科的预防该疾病及其复发的世界专家。这些会议所取得的成功和产生的热情突出表明，有必要定期召开以卵巢癌为重点的会议。没有其他这种类型的会议。我们建议每两年举办一次专题讨论会，以促进不同学科的科学家、政策制定者和消费者权益倡导者之间的互动，以便在克服这种疾病方面取得进展。专题讨论会系列的具体目的是扩大我们对卵巢癌潜在机制的理解和研究，重点是将这些知识应用于预防和早期发现疾病及其复发。NCI将分子生物学机制、高通量技术、遗传学和靶向治疗作为2011财年的重点目标，其中卵巢癌是重点领域。最近的科学和技术进步，加上缺乏专门关于卵巢癌的定期科学会议，支持需要举行一系列关于卵巢癌研究创新方法的专题讨论会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of death from gynecologic malignancy in the US, resulting in 13,850 deaths in 2010. Most women have advanced disease at diagnosis. Despite aggressive treatment, prognosis for these women is poor: 5-year survival is less than 30%. This poor outcome is due to the lack of effective prevention and early detection strategies: when diagnosed at an early stage, the survival rate is 85-90%. Thus, prevention and early detection are key to overcoming this disease. However, few preventive modalities exist and current screening techniques have failed to reduce morbidity or mortality. Thus, we urgently need to identify better prevention, detection and screening methods. Moreover, because of the virulent and usually fatal nature of the disease, most women with ovarian cancer live with fear of recurrence, which happens in ~85% of cases. Current treatments offer little hope, and research into preventing recurrence is limited. New methods to prevent, detect and treat recurrence are urgently needed. With NCI funding in 2002 & 2005, we hosted symposia on ovarian cancer, bringing together the world's experts on prevention of the disease and its recurrence from various scientific disciplines. The success and enthusiasm generated by those meetings underscore the need for periodic meetings focused on ovarian cancer. No other meetings of this type exist. We propose to organize biennial symposia to facilitate interactions among scientists from different disciplines, policy makers and consumer advocates so that progress can be made in overcoming this disease. The Specific Aim of the symposia series is to expand our understanding of and research in the underlying mechanisms in ovarian cancer, with a focus on applying that knowledge to prevention and early detection of the diseases and its recurrence. The NCI has made molecular and biologic mechanisms, high-throughput technologies, genetics, and targeted therapies key goals in FY2011, with ovarian cancer a focus area. Recent scientific and technological advances, together with the lack of periodic scientific meetings specifically on ovarian cancer, support the need for a series of symposia on innovative approaches to research in ovarian cancer. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Ovarian cancer is the leading killer among gynecologic cancers in women. Little progress has been made in overcoming this disease. There is no periodic scientific meeting focused on ovarian cancer research. A small, well-focused meeting to facilitate cross-talk among ovarian cancer experts from various disciplines who do not typically or consistently interact is a key step in making progress in overcoming this killer.