Hua-Ying Fan, PhD, hopes her team’s latest discovery could benefit the nearly 21,000 people expected to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year.
Researchers at The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center found that an FDA-approved drug may make ovarian cancer cells more responsive to standard chemotherapy. Their findings were published in Cancer Research Communications.
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at advanced stages, and no routine screening tests exist. According to the National Cancer Institute’s SEER program, an estimated 20,890 people will be diagnosed in 2025, and 12,730 are expected to die from the disease.
Current Treatments and Limitations
Standard ovarian cancer therapy typically involves platinum-based chemotherapy, such as carboplatin or cisplatin, often combined with paclitaxel. While over 80% of patients initially respond, only about half survive beyond 18 months after diagnosis due to recurrence. Once the cancer returns, cells often become resistant to platinum-based drugs, leaving limited treatment options.
Targeting the Notch Pathway
In 2017, Fan began exploring new strategies for recurrent ovarian cancer. Her team focused on the Notch pathway, a series of cellular reactions that guide cell specialization. A protein called RBPJ binds to DNA to control this process. Fan’s earlier research showed that auranofin, an FDA-approved drug for rheumatoid arthritis, can prevent RBPJ from binding to DNA, disrupting the Notch pathway.
Laboratory Testing
Fan collaborated with Kimberly Leslie, MD, a gynecologic cancer specialist, providing ovarian cancer cells for experiments. Some cells, known as OVCAR3, rely heavily on the Notch pathway and do not respond to cisplatin alone. However, treating these cells with auranofin combined with cisplatin caused significant cell death.
The team also used cancer organoids—three-dimensional cell clusters grown from patient tumors—to model individual cancers. Organoids exposed to higher doses of the drug combination showed increased cancer cell death.
Finally, the researchers tested the treatment in small animals with ovarian tumors. Animals receiving higher doses of the combination therapy lived longer and had fewer, smaller tumors.
Fan’s findings suggest that repurposing auranofin could improve chemotherapy effectiveness for ovarian cancer, offering hope for patients facing limited options.
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