![The OVCARE team is grateful for donations received.](https://vghfoundation.ca/resources/uploads/2013/10/OVCARE-team_wide.png)
The OVCARE team is grateful for donations received.
60-year-old Alexandra Cooke (known as Alix) was a beloved mother, wife, grandmother, sister and friend, with a passion for life that touched everyone around her. Tragically, after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer, Alix passed away.
After Alix’s death, her daughter Dana and other family members attended a tour of OVCARE (the Ovarian Cancer Research Initiative). One of the world’s top three ovarian cancer research programs, OVCARE has transformed the way ovarian cancer is prevented, detected, diagnosed and treated. Inspired by the tour, Alix’s family came together to make a donation to OVCARE in her memory.
When ovarian cancer is detected early, the survival rate can increase from 15% to 90%.
This donation helped purchase an IncuCyte Zoom Automated Microscope System (called “Al” in Alix’s memory), which helps researchers more effectively perform long-term cancer cell studies. IncuCyte is integral to advancing ovarian cancer research, specifically in targeting optimal drug treatments and showing genetic mutations. The OVCARE team is also making this technology available to researchers in other areas such as prostate cancer, which will benefit people facing various types of life-threatening cancers.
“Al” is a tremendous asset to VGH’s OVCARE program, one that will vastly help others facing ovarian cancer. And for Alix’s family, it’s a fitting tribute to an incredible woman whose energy and kindness continues to inspire those around her.
SIDE BAR STORY: MAKING ADVANCES IN OVARIAN CANCER
Under the scientific leadership of Drs. David Huntsman, Dianne Miller, and Blake Gilks, OVCARE has become an international leader in ovarian cancer research. Their research successes are changing the way ovarian cancer research is being conducted – and, most importantly, the way women are treated – not just in BC but around the world.
With reliable methods for screening and early detection, ovarian cancer can literally be stopped in its tracks: at-risk women can undergo early or even preventative removal of pre-cancerous ovaries and fallopian tubes, and never develop full-blown cancer, possibly avoiding chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well.
Since ovarian cancer is usually found at a late stage of development, the current five-year survival rate is a mere 15%, but when caught early the five-year survival rate increases to 90%.
On the prevention front, the OVCARE team has launched the world’s first prevention campaign which has the potential to reduce the incidence of ovarian cancer by 50% in the next 20 years.
VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation is currently raising $3.5 million so this life-saving and revolutionary research can continue.
Support ovarian cancer research.
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