The Medical College team, under the direction of Howard J. Jacob, PhD, will study the rat genome. Dr. Jacob is Associate Professor of Physiology and Warren P. Knowles Professor of Human and Molecular Genetics and Director of the Human and Molecular Genetics Center. To translate the language of the human genome into patient care, scientists must still decipher many of the individual genes and their functions, a task for which the rat is a perfect model. This is the largest study of its kind to date. We're not saying this is a miracle cure.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cancer cause of death among women.
The treatment involves high dose chemotherapy combined with transplanting the woman's blood stem cells. The study found that 39 percent of the women with chemotherapy-sensitive disease survived two years after treatment. Historically, only about 20 percent who get conventional treatment survive two years. The women who are the best candidates for this treatment are under 50 years of age, in good health aside from the cancer and have disease that can respond to chemotherapy, Dr. Horowitz said. The Medical School Class of 2003 is creating a memorial to a fellow classmate who died last year, and needs help to make it a reality.