Women are frequently diagnosed with ovarian cancer at late stages of the disease when the tumor has already spread beyond the surface of the ovary or fallopian tube and metastasized within the abdominal cavity. Conventional cancer chemotherapy treatment has shown limited success in women with advanced disease, with at least 50% of women developing tumor recurrence leading to death from the disease. Emerging research, however, suggests that novel ways of combining surgical tumor excision, DNA-damaging chemotherapy and immunotherapy could markedly improve patient survival, but exactly how to combine these treatments remains unclear. We are investigating specific types of surgically administered chemotherapy along with the tumor microenvironment response in order to identify specific treatments that enhance tumor cell killing and simultaneously engage the immune system to destroy any residual cancer cells.

The combination of bench research and clinical experience is directly in line with my goals to become a physician-scientist. Gynecological cancers are very understudied and are a cause that hits very close to home, and this experience is going to allow me to grow and flourish so much in the sciences, setting the foundation prior to me matriculating to medical school.