Harnessing Nanotechnologies for Innovative Ovarian Cancer Care

Harnessing Nanotechnologies for Innovative Ovarian Cancer Care

In the US, ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer. A “one size fits all” approach fails to capture its increasing genomic and proteomic data depicting a range of genetic instability and behaviors. To address this heterogeneity, expanding pipelines of targeted therapies are poised to be tested in early phase trials. The current plateau in ovarian cancer management could benefit from exploiting forward-thinking strategies to identify early responders to novel drugs using specimen-limited yet accessible human tissue amenable to serial acquisition. This talk seeks to highlight practical experience with nanomedicine and work using novel nanosensors to profile cancer protein markers across the spectrum of human specimens — fine needle aspirates (FNAs), ascites, and peripheral blood — procured from patients with ovarian cancer.

Dr. Castro is Director of the Cancer Program at the MGH Center for Systems Biology, Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Attending Physician at the MGH Cancer Center. He is a translational oncologist with experience leveraging nanotechnology and molecular imaging for solid tumor detection and serial profiling. He has served as Chair of the In Vitro Diagnostics Working Group within the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Dr. Castro’s research is currently funded by the NIH, DOD, and the MGH Executive Committee on Research.