Iowa City, Iowa — University of Iowa researchers have landed a ten-million-dollar federal grant to develop a new treatment for ovarian cancer.
Jill Kolesar , dean of the UI College of Pharmacy, is working on a drug that will make ovarian tumors more sensitive to immunotherapy by helping the immune system recognize cells around them. Kolesar says this could bring ovarian cancer treatment into the 21st century.
It’s estimated more than 12 thousand women nationwide will die from ovarian cancer this year, according to federal data. Kolesar says ovarian cancer is often diagnosed in the late stages.
She says the cancer is also often made of cells that hide from the immune system, making it hard to target and nearly always fatal. The grant comes from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
