The Ovarian Cancer Research Project at Dartmouth
Dartmouth Medical School
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Norris Cotton Cancer Center
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- Leslie DeMars, MD, Program Leader, Gynecologic Cancer Program
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Norris Cotton Cancer Center
- Hillary White, PhD, Associate Professor, Dartmouth Medical School
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| Dr. Hillary D. White, Ph.D. |
The majority of all gynecologic cancers are cured, but some ovarian cancers are among the exceptions because they are hard to diagnose early when highly curable, and more challenging to treat in later stages when they are most commonly diagnosed.
Among the major events altered during ovarian cancer development is the evasion of these cancer cells from the protection of one's own immune system. This immunity normally helps the body fight infections, inflammation and cancer development. However, newly developing ovarian cancer cells seem to escape this normal immune protection.
Dr. Hillary White, Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Dartmouth Medical School, has been doing extensive research to clarify why this happens. She has studied how ovarian cancer cells behave, what the environment is in which they grow, and why they elude natural immunity. Previous studies by Dr. White showed how immune cells are regulated in the non-tumor state within the female reproductive tract. She showed that hormones can control these cells to allow for a fetus to avoid attack by the mother's immune system.
Dr. White's new findings show, using a faithful mouse model of ovarian cancer, that a tumor induced hormone interferes with the normal immune response, allowing ovarian cancer cells to escape detection instead of being killed.
Furthermore, Dr. White has demonstrated that this phenomenon can be blocked, permitting the body's natural immune cells once again to function by attacking tumor cells. Studies with human samples are proving that the mouse model has strong parallels to the human system. These findings suggest a novel therapeutic strategy for developing new medicines against this disease.
If you are interested in this research, you may contact Dr. White by e-mail at hdw@dartmouth.edu
