• About Our Department
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• Divisions
  • General Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Gynecologic Oncology
  • Helen O. Dickens Center for Women
  • Maternal Fetal Medicine
  • Penn Center for Advanced Gynecologic Surgery
  • Penn Family Planning & Pregnancy Loss Center
  • Penn Health for Women at Pennsylvania Hospital
  • Penn Health for Women at Radnor
  • Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
  • Reproductive Genetics
  • Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery
• Education
  • Residency
    • - Curriculum and Clinical Experience
    • - Educational Conferences
    • - Research
    • - Current Residents
    • - How to Apply
  • Fellowships
    • - Family Planning
    • - Gynecologic Oncology
    • - Maternal Fetal Medicine
    • - Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
    • - Urogynecology
  • Medical Students
    • - Core Clinical Clerkship
    • - Core Didactics
    • - Elective Courses
    • - Women's Health Certificate Program
  • Simulation and Team Training
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• Career Development
  • Women's Reproductive Health Research
  • Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health
• Patient Care
• Research
  • Center for Research in Reproduction and Women's Health
  • Maternal and Child Health Research Program
  • Women's Health Clinical Research Center
  • The Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center
    • - Ovarian Cancer
    • - Translational Research
    • - Clinical Research
  • Research in Human Behavior and Reproduction Program
    • - PMS Program
  • Clinical Research Trials

The University of Pennsylvania Health System, the School of Medicine, the Abramson Cancer Center, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology have made ovarian cancer a top research and clinical priority at PENN and have jointly invested significant resources to create the new Ovarian Cancer Research Center launched in July 2007 under the leadership of George Coukos, MD, PhD.

The Center's goal is to identify new detection methods, develop new prevention approaches and therapies and improve the quality of life for women with ovarian cancer.

The Center provides an infrastructure for ovarian cancer research and treatment and serves as a catalyst to unite existing talent at Penn, recruit new investigators and promote interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of ovarian cancer research.

The new Center has three major research programs:

• Ovarian cancer early detection and prevention program
• Ovarian cancer advanced therapeutics program
• Ovarian cancer biology and pathogenesis program

The ovarian cancer early detection and prevention program develops new detection tools such as biomarkers and imaging technologies, as well as new prevention methods. The advanced therapeutics program develops new treatment approaches that will hopefully increase women's chances for cure. Each program conducts translational research, therefore offering clinical trials testing the effectiveness of the detection, prevention and therapeutic methods discovered.

The ovarian cancer biology and pathogenesis program has a more fundamental discovery focus, with the aim to understand the pathogenesis and biology of ovarian cancer and feed the other two programs with ideas and information from which detection, prevention and therapeutic concepts can be developed.

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Active Clinical Trials

For a complete listing of all active clinical trials, please visit: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/obgyn/research/trials.htm

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Faculty

• George Coukos, MD, PhD - Director
• Christina S. Chu, MD
• Phyllis Gimotty, PhD
• Carl H. June, MD
• Lana Kandalaft, PharmD, PhD
• Sarah Kim, MD
• Daniel J. Powell, Jr., PhD
• Stephen C. Rubin, MD
• Nathalie Scholler, MD, PhD
• Lin Zhang, MD

Administrative Staff

• Nancy Kennedy-Smith
• Elizabeth Straw

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Helpful Links

• Brochure on Early Detection & Cure of Ovarian Cancer
• NCI Cancer Bulletin
• Abramson Cancer Center
• Clinical Briefing Newsletter
• Division of Gynecologic Oncology
• Penn Health for Women Newsletter
• Oncolink
• Society for Gynecologic Oncology
• Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health
• Penn's Institutional Review Board (IRB)
• Penn's Institutional Biosafety Committee
• National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC)
• Gynecologic Cancer Foundation
• Canary Foundation
• Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
• The Ben & Catherine Ivy Foundation
• SGO Statement on Use of CA125 for Monitoring Ovarian Cancer