The OCRF continues to explore different synergies amongst our peer organisations to support relevant research and increase funding opportunities into ovarian cancer.
New collaborations with these cancer research peers have led to the awarding of several successful joint grants. These joint grants see our investment matched dollar for dollar to fund promising ovarian cancer research.
National breast cancer foundation
The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) is Australia’s leading national body funding research into breast cancer with the aim of stopping all deaths from breast cancer. Emerging evidence suggests that there is significant overlap in the mutation profile and endocrine-driven signalling pathways of patients with breast cancer and ovarian cancer. These developments offer exciting opportunities to support collaborative cancer research projects that consider shared approaches to treating breast and ovarian cancer. The NBCF and the OCRF have agreed to jointly fund high impact translational research that spans both ovarian and breast cancers to improve outcomes for women. The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $1 million over three-to-five years, evenly split between the two organisations for one or two research projects.
Ovarian and Breast Cancer Research Collaboration Initiative Grant Recipient Announced
Project: Development of a novel combination therapy to target triple-negative breast and high-grade serous ovarian cancers
AUSTralian cancer research foundation
The Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) provides grants for major infrastructure and equipment to enable high quality research into all forms of cancer in Australia. This provided the opportunity for a complementary funding relationship, whereby the OCRF could step in and fund the personnel working on ovarian cancer projects that had already been awarded by the ACRF and were in line with the OCRF mission. This opportunity created substantial efficiencies, where research teams did not need to reapply for funding when their projects had already been rigorously assessed by the ACRF. A formal partnership commenced in 2018 and the first joint grant was awarded in 2018. The OCRF has committed up to $300,000 per annum for a term of three years to continue this exciting partnership.
Projects: ACRF Program for resolving cancer complexity and therapeutic resistance
ACRF Facility for innovative cancer drug discovery
cancer council victoria
Cancer Council Victoria has developed an international reputation for innovative work in cancer research, prevention, and support. As an independent not-for-profit organisation, they play a leading role in reducing the impact of all cancers on all people. Cancer Council Victoria has sought ways to increase investment for research into low survival cancers, such as ovarian cancer, and has agreed to co-fund a Grants-in-Aid award with the OCRF. This model aims to access established and rigorous research assessment processes already in place to ensure the best research applications are supported – with the ultimate aim of improving outcomes for people affected by low survival cancers. A Grants-in-Aid project has been jointly funded to a maximum of $100,000 per year for up to three years, to support a specific ovarian cancer research project.
Project: Identifying new treatment options for the rare and aggressive ovarian carcinosarcoma
Implementing a rapid blood test for the early detection of ovarian cancer
Associate Professor Carlos Salomon Gallo
Funder (OCRF Collaboration):
Medical Research Future Fund
Associate Professor Carlos Salomon from the University of Queensland was awarded over $2million by the Medical Research Future Fund.
Associate Professor Salomon and his team previously undertook a discovery project that was funded by the OCRF, which identified a new type of test that showed promising results for identifying ovarian cancer in its early stages, including asymptomatic stages. This test is focused on identifying High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer which is responsible for most ovarian cancer mortality. The biomarkers identified were also associated with the extracellular signalling pathway, used by cancer cells to promote metastatic activity, which is important for understanding the way ovarian cancer spreads. Considering the support of the OCRF in the initial stages of this research, Associate Professor Salomon has named the central algorithm of his new project ‘OCRF-7’. Associate Professor Salomon and his team will now expand upon the initial promising results to determine if the test could be used for screening of the general population. Using the samples from the largest screening study to date, the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) the team will evaluate the performance of the new test against the CA125 biomarker and the Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm evaluation method that was used in the UKCTOCS trial. If successful, this project has the potential to detect ovarian cancer at its most curable stage.
Predicting and preventing ovarian cancer: a machine learning approach
University of South Australia
Funder (OCRF Collaboration):
Medical Research Future Fund
Professor Elina Hypponen of the University of South Australia was awarded $1.3million by the Medical Research Future Fund.
Professor Hypponen aims to understand what causes ovarian cancer and how we can identify women at high risk. Her project will use a data-driven machine learning approach to map genetic and physical risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing ovarian cancer. Machine-learning is a form of artificial intelligence that allows many factors to be considered simultaneously so that patterns of risk, that could lead to predicting ovarian cancer, can be uncovered. The data collected considers exposure factors including health, medication use, lifestyle, diet, environment and specific reproductive factors. These are considered in addition to body composition and genetic, metabolic and hormonal risk factors. The team will then assess which factors are deemed important for predicting ovarian cancer risk. This information will allow the team to characterise risk-factor profiles, which could identify women who are at high risk of developing ovarian cancer and prompt screening and early detection. The OCRF is delighted to be collaborating on this project that, with data from 273,000 women, is the first and largest assessment of the impact of individual exposures on the development of ovarian cancer. The novel approaches used in this study may be the key that unlocks new clues to the causes of ovarian cancer, so that new ways to prevent it can be investigated.
Towards a new era in granulosa cell tumour (GCT) research: patient driven outcomes, genomics, diagnostics and therapeutics
Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Medical Research Future Fund
Dr Simon Chu was awarded over $2million by the Medical Research Future Fund.
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. The project to combat ovarian GCT received $2,218,870 from the 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. “Part of the work is to look at the genomic landscape and the mutations that are causing a tumour to become more aggressive,” Dr Chu explains. “When the tumours recur, they’re particularly aggressive and can’t be treated.”
Ovarian cancer early detection, monitoring and therapeutic intervention using extracellular vesicles
Associate Professor Carlos Salomon Gallo
Medical Research Future Fund
Associate Professor Carlos Salomon from the University of Queensland was awarded over $1million by the Medical Research Future Fund.
Focusing on investigating the role of exosomes – tiny vesicles released from cells that are believed to act as messengers to other cells – Associate Professor Salomon Gallo and his team hope to identify the role and mechanisms of exosomes in slowing cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance for epithelial ovarian cancers. Epithelial ovarian cancers are the most common type of ovarian tumour and comprise over 90% of cases. Associate Professor Salomon Gallo says the project also aims to evaluate whether exosomes could be used to deliver therapeutic agents to cancerous cells in the hopes of improving patient outcomes. “This award is also a recognition of The University of Queensland, and the OCRF for believing in our work, and how teamwork is the key to success” Associate Professor Salomon Gallo says.
A new radio-imaging agent to guide targeted therapy for epithelial ovarian cancer
Funder (OCRF Collaboration):
Medical Research Future Fund
Professor John Hooper from the University of Queensland was awarded over $1million by the Medical Research Future Fund.
Professor John Hooper and his team from Mater Research at the University of Queensland is focused on developing agents that can both diagnose and treat epithelial ovarian cancer. The team’s goal is to evaluate a new radio-imaging agent to guide targeted therapy for women who have ovarian cancer, in the first study of its kind in humans. By administering this new agent, the team will attach a tracer to the ovarian cancer cells, which is expected to make detection of the disease easier during radiology scans, similar to what is currently performed with prostate cancer diagnosis. Professor Hooper says the project, which was awarded $1,893,306, is the culmination of nearly 20 years of research - all the way from the initial discovery in the lab to being here on the threshold of conducting a clinical trial. The project is a wonderful collaboration of scientists and clinicians from very diverse backgrounds as well as patients and family members who are guiding the team on their journey. “We have also been blessed by the generous support of our country's major ovarian cancer advocacy organisations including the OCRF, ANZGOG and Tour de Cure" says Professor Hooper.
Development of a novel combination therapy to target triple-negative breast and high-grade serous ovarian cancers
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
National Breast Cancer Foundation
This funded project will investigate a new combination therapy that has shown promise for both triple-negative breast (TNBC) and serous-type ovarian cancer. The treatment will focus on an important part of the body’s natural recycling system, called proteasomes. These complexes break down unneeded or damaged proteins in the body, but can play an unwanted assistive role in cancer. A class of drugs, called proteasome inhibitors, can act to selectively kill cancer cells, and also prevent their growth and spread in the body.
Previous generations of proteasome inhibiting drugs were not very effective against cancer, as they couldn’t penetrate into solid tumours or get into the brain. Professor Khanna and her team have shown that a new drug, called marizomib, is more effective than the older options, and can reduce the growth and spread of TNBC. The current project will now assess the drug as a treatment for ovarian cancer.
In addition to testing marizomib alone, the researchers will also test it in combination with other FDA-approved drugs. They believe that these combination therapies may lead to a potential treatment for both breast and ovarian cancer.
Identifying new treatment options for the rare and aggressive ovarian carcinosarcoma
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Ovarian carcinosarcoma (OCS) is an aggressive cancer with few treatment options. As ovarian carcinosarcoma is a rare cancer which sees low survivorship, the team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research aim to further understand why OCS is so much more aggressive than other subtypes of ovarian cancer. They also hope to find new treatment options for this rare cancer to improve patient survival.
To do this, the team have a unique toolbox of pre-clinical models of OCS, which they will use to test new treatment options. Researchers will develop organoid models to test potential drugs identified in their drug screens, and potential targets identified in our genetic screens. This will generate top quality data which can be translated to a clinical setting, meaning faster outcomes for patients.
ACRF Program for Resolving Cancer Complexity and Therapeutic Resistance
The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Australian Cancer Research Foundation
The ACRF awarded $3.5 million towards this Program which focuses on the discovery of triggers that drive cancer development, how genetic diversity in cancers affects treatment efficacy, and develop better ways of personalising cancer therapies to conquer the biggest challenges in cancer today – predicting and improving patients’ treatment response and overcoming drug resistance. The ACRF investment will enable a major program of research, focused on analysis of single cells taken from patient tumours and models for a range of cancers. The multidisciplinary collaborative team will include 19 cancer experts and their teams from across the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, who are accomplished leaders in breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers, acute and chronic leukaemias, lymphoma and myeloma.
The OCRF provided funding for a full-time postdoctoral bioinformatician to operate the sophisticated software required for the new analysis of both single cell genomic data and imaging data from specialist platforms. This service will be available to without fee to any researcher conducting ovarian cancer research.
ACRF Facility for innovative cancer drug discovery
Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne
Lead Chief Investigators:
Professor Michael Parker, Dr David Ascher, Professor Rick Peason, Professor John Silke
Australian Cancer Research Foundation
The ACRF awarded $2 million towards funding the creation of the ACRF Facility for Innovative Cancer Drug Discovery at the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne. The Facility uses structural biology approaches to discover new cancer drugs. Structural biology holds the key to developing innovative cancer drugs by providing detailed information about the shape of molecules that are involved in cancer-causing biological signalling pathways within cells of our bodies. The ACRF Facility will enhance Australia’s cancer research capacity and provide Australian cancer researchers with ready access to powerful tools for early stage structure-based compound discovery and development into drugs that can be tested in clinical trials.
The OCRF provided part-funding for two experienced postdoctoral scientists currently supporting two ovarian cancer research projects.