UCHealth was recently ranked High Performing in Ovarian Cancer Surgery and Uterine Cancer Surgery by U.S. News & World Report. We are honored to be in the company of other high preforming hospitals including Baylor University, Cleveland Clinic and MD Anderson.
Ovarian Cancer, while rare, is highly lethal, claiming the lives of over 14,000 women in the US annually. To combat this grim reality, the Ovarian Cancer Innovations Group (OCIG) was established at the University of Colorado in September 2023, generously supported by the endowments, and the unwavering support of your loved ones. Our Multidisciplinary team, comprised of top-tier researchers, clinicians, and innovators, is dedicated to tackling ovarian cancer. One focus is prevention and early detection, including identifying genetic predispositions among patients' family members for counseling and potentially life-saving surgeries. Additionally, we've initiated the analysis of a concise four-question symptom screen for ovarian cancer within the general population to target at-risk individuals effectively. These are just a few aspects of our comprehensive efforts. We are delighted to share our inaugural newsletter with you.
Over the past year, the Gynecologic Oncology Research Group has made significant contributions to the field by publishing more than 24 articles in renowned clinical and pre-clinical journals, including Gynecologic Oncology and Molecular Cancer Research. These articles cover a wide range of topics, from innovative clinical practices to advancements in our fundamental understanding of gynecologic cancers.
Exciting news! We are pleased to announce the expansion of the Gynecologic Oncology practice to Colorado Springs, under the leadership of Drs. Saketh Guntupalli and Nicole Marjon.
In other exciting news, our team has been actively engaged in groundbreaking research:
On June 12th, 2023, the Division of Gynecologic Oncology celebrated the establishment of the D. Thomas and Kay L. Dunton Endowed Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research made possible through the generosity of Tom Dunton.
Tom Dunton created this endowed chair to celebrate the memory of his late wife, Kay Dunton. Kay was known for her strong personality, her talent for designing, remodeling, renovating, and building historic homes, her business acumen, and her prowess on the ski slopes. She passed away on April 9, 2021, after a valiant battle with ovarian cancer.
Kay earned a degree in art history from the University of Colorado, and with the help of some extra business classes, she became one of Denver's top realtors and a founding partner of Distinctive Properties, Ltd. She specialized in selling Denver's finest historical homes as well as taking a leading role in historic preservation. While living in Park City she returned to her love of real estate beginning with East West Partners' Empire Pass development in Deer Valley. She also played a significant part in the renovation of Denver's historic Queen Anne neighborhood.
Benjamin Bitler, PhD, will serve as the inaugural holder of the chair, and his teaching and research will focus on early screening and detection of ovarian cancer. Dr. Bitler's research centers on ovarian cancer, Wnt signaling and epigenetics. He is committed to the fight against cancer through his work to elucidate the impact of cancer-related signaling and epigenetic regulation.
The University of Colorado Division of Gynecologic Oncology hosted the 2nd Annual Ovarian Cancer Research Group Think Tank Meeting in September of 2023. The included ovarian cancer experts from all over the world to discuss urgent ovarian cancer questions, including early detection and immune therapy. A summary of the Think Tank will be distributed with the following newsletter.
Nicole Marjon, MD, PhD is a physician scientist in the University of Colorado's (CU) Division of Gynecologic Oncology. She grew up in Albuquerque where she completed her MD and her PhD and found her passion for treating patients with gynecologic malignancies as well as doing research focused on the treatment of ovarian cancer. She then went on to complete her residency at Stanford and fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She chose CU to start her career because of the excellence in both science and clinical medicine.
Dr. Marjon's primary clinical practice is at CU Medicine Gynecologic Oncology - Colorado Springs — CU Gynecologic Oncology's first clinic in Southern Colorado which opened earlier this year. Expanding to Southern Colorado allows patients the benefits of accessing an academic practice with clinical trials, tumor board, and collaborative experts in all medical fields, while avoiding the drive to Denver for routine appointments. Dr. Marjon lives in the Colorado Springs community and enjoys caring for patients alongside physician assistant Alyson Fisher, PA-C, as well as developing relationships with other community providers.
Dr. Marjon joined the CU as a Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) fellow, which supports her ability to have time away from the clinic to perform research. Since staring at CU she received an internal grant from the University of Colorado in collaboration with the American Cancer Society to help start her lab. Her research is focused on modifying the immune system to allow it to attack the cancer. Most immunotherapies now are focused on a type of cells called T-cells, but unfortunately these treatments have been unsuccessful in ovarian cancer. Her research instead focuses on immune cells, called myeloid derived suppressor cells, which inhibit the ability of the T cells to function in the tumor. Since starting 1 year ago, she was recently awarded a competitive early career investigator grant through the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA), which provides funding for her lab for 3 years. She is excited to see this work translated into the clinic to benefit patients and about a new collaboration where she will be evaluating how the nervous system interacts with the immune system to promote tumor growth to generate novel targets for therapies.