We are proud to announce that last week Dr W Martin Kast was a recipient of a 2015 STOP CANCER award. This award was made possible by a generous donation by Joan Feldman, who was present at the award ceremony surrounded by her extensive family. The award was given for his lab’s work on diagnosing early stage ovarian cancer. As of this year in its long history STOP CANCER has given 244 awards to 201 investigators representing a value of $65.2 million, and we’re honored that Martin is included in this group.
Detection of early stage ovarian cancer is crucial due to the fact that it ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. A woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer within her lifetime is 1 in 75, and The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be over 21,000 newly diagnosed cases of ovarian cancer and that 14,000 will die from ongoing disease in 2015.
Our lab together with collaborators at Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX led by Dr. Chiriva-Internati is determined to do what we can to reduce the morbidity rate of ovarian cancer, and this award will ultimately be used to push forward our ovarian cancer biomarker validation and allow us to STOP ovarian CANCER in its tracks through diagnosing early stage cases which will allow early and much more effective intervention when compared to diagnosing this cancer at later stages of disease.
To learn more about Ovarian Cancer visit The American Cancer Society.
The STOP CANCER Mission:
STOP CANCER is committed to funding the most promising and innovative scientists in their early research of all forms of cancer prevention, treatment, cures and subsequent clinical applications. STOP CANCER works primarily with local National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and other qualified institutions in the United States to carry out its mission.