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Scientists at the University of Oxford are designing OvarianVax, a vaccine which teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer. The team will receive up to £600,000 for the study over the next three years to support lab research into the vaccine.
In this study, the Cancer Research UK-funded scientists will establish the targets for the vaccine. They will find out which proteins on the surface of early-stage ovarian cancer cells are most strongly recognised by the immune system and how effectively the vaccine kills mini-models of ovarian cancer called organoids.
If this research is successful, work will then begin on clinical trials of the vaccine. The hope is that in the future, women could be offered this vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer in the first place.
There are around 7,500 new ovarian cancer cases every year in the UK, and it is the 6th most common cancer in women. There is no current screening programme for the disease and some women with inherited copies of altered genes are at higher risk.