In this study, the Cancer Research UK-funded scientists will establish the targets for the vaccine. They will find out which proteins on the surface of early-stage ovarian cancer cells are most strongly recognized by the immune system and how effectively the vaccine kills mini-models of ovarian cancer called organoids. If this research is successful, work will then begin on clinical trials of the vaccine.
The hope is that in the future, women could be offered this vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer in the first place. There are around 7,500 new ovarian cancer cases every year in the UK, and it is the 6 th most common cancer in women*. There is no current screening program for the disease and some women with inherited copies of altered genes are at higher risk.
Ovarian cancer risk is up to 65% higher in women with altered BRCA1 genes, and up to 35% higher in women with altered BRCA2 genes, compared to women without these gene alterations**. Currently, women with BRCA1/2 alterations are recommended to have their ovaries removed by the age of 35, which means that they can't have children in the future, and they experience early menopause . Director of the Ovarian Cancer Cell Laboratory, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford and lead for the OvarianVax project, Professor Ahmed Ahmed, said: "We need better strategies to prevent ovarian cancer.
Currently women with BRCA1/2 mutations, who are at very high risk, are offered surgery which prevents c.