More Media Appearances

Dr. Matulonis and Dana-Farber have been part of several recent media articles and television appearances.

Dr. Matulonis was interviewed by NBC News for a recent story about a clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania that uses a patient's tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/238656/8/New-weapon-against-ovarian-cancer

The New York Times  published an article on March 12, 2013 about a recent study suggesting that a large percentage of women with ovarian cancer are receiving inadequate care. The original article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/health/ovarian-cancer-study-finds-widespread-flaws-in-treatment.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Dr. Matulonis did several interviews about this study:

• Fox 25 News: http://www.myfoxboston.com/video?clipId=8645450&autostart=true
• The Boston Globe:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2013/03/17/why-most-women-with-ovarian-cancer-get-sub-standard-treatment/u3x0QUpwUhFVKTLtePaPwK/story.html
• WBUR's Common Health Blog: http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2013/03/good-news-ovarian-cancer

What are your thoughts on the recent article and the impact this will have on women being treated for ovarian cancer?

Celebrating Survivorship

Please join us on Saturday May 18, 2013 for Beyond Gynecologic Cancer: Celebrating Survivorship. The program will feature treatment and research updates from Dana-Farber physicians & specialists, including Ursula Matulonis, M.D. & Panos Konstantinopoulos, M.D., PhD.  There will also be a patient panel and complimentary breakfast and lunch.

All of this is free but advance registration is required.  There are two ways to register for this event.

• On the website at: www.dana-farber.org/gynsurvivor
• Call (617) 582-7211

Stay tuned for more on the agenda and additional events that day. We hope to see you there!

Media News

Dr. Matulonis was featured in the Spring 2013 Be Healthy supplement in the The Bay State Banner newspaper. The article focuses on vaccinations being the key to reducing the deadliest strands of the HPV virus.

You can read the article on their website here: http://behealthy.baystatebanner.com/magazine/2013/0411/vaccinations.html

Meet the Providers

Alexi Wright, M.D., MPH

Alexi Wright, MD, MPH is a Medical Oncologist in the Gynecologic Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a health services researcher whose work focuses on improving advanced cancer patients’ quality of life and medical outcomes by developing an evidence base to guide chemotherapy decision-making at the end-of-life and translating these findings into communication-based interventions to ensure that advanced cancer patients’ care is both patient-centered and effective.

Another area of her research agenda focuses on cervical cancer, and specifically discovery work examining the molecular mutations underlying this disease, using high-throughput, next-generation sequencing technology, and understanding how these impact patient outcomes at a population-based level. Her research is supported by grants from the American Cancer Society, American Society for Clinical Oncology, the National Palliative Care Research Center, and generous support from donors.

Dr. Wright has been a regular contributor to The New England Journal of Medicine, and has published papers in Journal of the American Medical Association, The Journal of Clinical Oncology, Archives of Internal Medicine, and Cancer, among others. She is the recipient of merit awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2008 and 2009. In 2012 she received the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment’s Award for the “Best Trainee Paper” (2008-2012). She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Ovarian Cancer Outcomes Database, National Comprehensive Cancer Center Network.

After receiving her MD from the University of Pennsylvania, she completed an internship and residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber. In 2011 Dr. Wright received her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health.

You are not alone

We all need the support of family and friends as we make our journeys through life, but even more so when faced with a life altering event like a cancer diagnosis.  Living with cancer can be overwhelming and leave a patient feeling that they have lost control over their life.  Sometimes there are things that are difficult or awkward to discuss with loved ones. That's why a support group can be an integral component in a patient's emotional well being through treatment and beyond.

It is important to find the right support group, one that will fit the patient's particular needs. The goal is to eliminate loneliness, reduce stress and provide hope. It is vital that the patient feels a connection with the other members and is comfortable sharing their own experiences and feelings with the group. Support groups may not be for everyone, and not all support groups are the same. Some patients may find it easier to join an online community rather than attend a session locally.

Dana-Farber has an excellent gynecologic cancer support group that meets monthly. Facilitated by Irene Goss-Werner, LICSW, the group allows patients the opportunity to talk about living with the uncertainty of cancer, how to effectively communicate with family & friends, and provide some tools to cope with the emotional impact of a gynecologic cancer diagnosis. The group meets on Thursdays  from 6:00 - 7:30pm, in the Dana-Farber building, 44 Binney Street, 16th floor, Room 1635. The next meeting is November 15th and registration is required.  To find out more information, or to register, please call Irene at 617-632-5836.

Tumor Subtypes Found

Tumor Subtypes Found

The extent of a key type of genetic damage in ovarian cancer cells offers clues for treatment

By ROB LEVY

September 20, 2012

New research may soon enable doctors to determine which patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC)—the most common cancer of the ovary—are likeliest to benefit from a certain class of drugs.


A team led by HMS researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute used technology able to pick out abnormalities in single units of the genetic code in order to sort tumor samples from HGSOC patients into three subtypes based on the extent of a particular kind of genetic damage within the cells. 

Patients in the subtype with the highest levels of damage—representing one-third to one-half of all HGSOC patients—were the slowest to develop resistance to platinum chemotherapy treatment such as carboplatin.  Overall, these patients lived longer without having their disease worsen than more did patients in the two other groups.

“Our findings suggest that, for the first time, we can determine which patients have the best chance of responding to specific categories of drugs for high-grade serous ovarian cancer,” said Ursula Matulonis, HMS associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber and a senior author of the study. “For this disease, one of the most difficult to treat of all gynecologic cancers, the study is an important step forward.” The findings were published online by the journal Clinical Cancer Research.  J. Dirk Iglehart, HMS Anne E. Dyson Professor in Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the paper’s other senior author. Zhigang Wang, HMS assistant professor of surgery at Dana-Farber, is the first author.

Cancer genetics research

HGSOC cells have a high degree of genomic instability, their nuclei littered with large numbers of extra or missing chromosomes or chromosome fragments.  One of the consequences of this havoc is a process known as loss of heterozygosity (LOH). LOH occurs in cells that lack the usual complement of two normal copies of each gene, having instead a normal and mutant copy of certain genes. When the normal gene in these mismatched pairs becomes inactive or mutated, the cell has no normal copy of the gene left – and is said to have lost heterozygosity.

In the study, investigators used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays—which read the elements of the genetic code one by one—to probe HGSOC tissue samples for instances of LOH.  The samples tested fell neatly into three groups based on the patterns of LOH within them. One of these groups was distinguished by a high level of LOH and a deleted segment of chromosome 13.  When researchers reviewed the medical records of patients in this group, they found the patients were slow to develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs.

“Patients with the greatest burden of LOH had the longest progression-free survival – the period of time after treatment when their disease is not advancing,” Wang said. “This is the group which stands to derive the most from treatment with certain classes of drugs.”

Potential cancer treatment

LOH hampers cancer cells’ ability to survive, rendering the cells particularly dependent on proteins that repair damaged chromosomes.  Drugs that target those repair proteins, including a class of agents known as PARP inhibitors, may be especially effective against HGSOC cells with high levels of LOH, the study authors assert.

The authors also found that LOH patterns in HGSOC were similar to those in triple-negative breast cancer, a form of breast cancer also characterized by a high level of chromosomal instability. The discovery suggests that agents effective in treating HGSOC might be effective against this type of breast cancer as well, the authors claim.

The study’s other authors include additional researchers from Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s and from the Technical University of Denmark; the University of Melbourne, Australia; the University of Bergen, Norway; and the University of Sydney, Australia

Principal funding for the study was provided by the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Adapted from a Dana Farber Cancer Institute news release. 

On Monday, September 17, 2012, the Massachusetts State House uveiled a banner for Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. The banner brings awareness to ovarian cancer, the sign and symptoms, as well as the need for additional research. Ovarian cancer effects everyone - women, husbands, daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, family and friends. Alexi Wright, M.D. respresented the Gynecologoc Oncology Program this year as the banner was unveiled.