"Characterization of Preclinical Ovarian Carcinoma in BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carriers"
The lack of an identifiable precursor lesion for ovarian carcinoma hinders attempts to design rational surveillance and chemoprevention for this deadly disease. Even the cell of origin is uncertain for ovarian and primary peritoneal carcinomas. Tissues from women with inherited mutations in BRCA1, who are at very high risk of ovarian, tubal, or peritoneal cancer, may offer insight into this problem by providing a rare glimpse of the earliest detectable disease.
Dr. Elizabeth Swisher, one of my mentors, has hypothesized that many ovarian and peritoneal carcinomas of BRCA1 mutation carriers are seeded from neoplastic cells in the fallopian tubes. Working with Dr. Swisher (Gynecologic Oncology, UW and SCCA) and Dr. Peggy Porter (Pathology, FHCRC and SCCA), and with their remarkable clinical material, I will compare tubal epithelium from affected and cancer-free women, with and without BRCA1 mutations, for genomic and protein markers of early tumor development.
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