About the Investigator:

Dr. Perets is a physician-scientist and medical oncologist whose work is focused on patients with gynecological malignancies.  She received her B. Med., M. Sc., M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Perets is currently a Senior Medical Oncologist and Member of the Clinical Research Institute at Rambam Medical Center and a faculty member at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa.

About the Research:

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) is the most common subtype of ovarian cancer and one of the most aggressive subtypes. HGSC was long thought to arise in the ovary itself but has recently been shown to arise from epithelial cells in the fallopian tube.  This new understanding of the cell of origin has shifted studies of ovarian cancer pathogenesis, prevention and early detection towards a focus on the fallopian tube. In order to study how cells in the fallopian tube undergo transformation from a normal to cancerous state, and to develop robust methods for prevention and early detection of HGSC, it is essential to have good, genetically-engineered mouse models of HGSC that arise from the correct cell of origin and accurately mimic the process of transformation. However, all current mouse models are complicated by the fact that over time, the mice develop not only ovarian cancer, but also other cancers.

The goal of Dr. Perets’ research is to develop a new mouse model that overcomes this problem by employing a more specific approach to induce deletion of tumor suppressor genes in fallopian tube cells.  Her team will then use this new murine model to test new ovarian cancer prevention methods, which are especially needed by women with BRCA1/2 mutations which predispose to ovarian cancer; and to gain an in-depth understanding of how ovarian cancer initiates in the fallopian tube. This model will enhance pre-clinical testing of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer.