EARLY DETECTION GRANTS

One in 78 women will face ovarian cancer in their lifetime.  More than 22,000 women are diagnosed annually, and only 15% of cases are diagnosed early.  Less than half of the women diagnosed this year will be alive in five years.

There is no reliable early detection test to screen for ovarian cancer.  Additionally, ovarian cancer symptoms can be vague and easily attributed to other causes, which increases the likelihood that women will experience a misdiagnosis or late diagnosis.  

We believe that the pursuit of early detection is the difference between life and death - the chance to fight it, to beat it, to live!

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IMPACT

The Laura Crandall Brown Foundation is the only nonprofit organization in Alabama whose research focus is dedicated solely to funding the early detection of ovarian cancer.

To date, we have funded more than $500,000 in research grants for this purpose, including grants to the following institutions:

  • Abramson Cancer Center - University of Pennsylvania (2011)

  • Mitchell Cancer Institute - University of South Alabama (2012)

  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, Division of GYN Oncology (2013) - Click here for a research update on this grant.

  • Ovarian Cancer Institute - Georgia Institute of Technology (2014)

  • HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (2016); Stephenson Cancer Center - University of Oklahoma (2016) - Click here for a research update on this grant.

  • HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (2017); Ovarian Cancer Institute - Georgia Institute of Technology (2017)

  • HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (2018); Weill Medical College - Cornell University (2018)

  • Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (2019); Ovarian Cancer Institute - Georgia Institute of Technology (2019)

  • Dr. Stephanie Cham - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Boston, Massachusetts (2020)

    Project: Sampling microneedle patches placed on the skin to detect analytes in interstitial fluid. These patches will be used to identify circulating micro RNAs in these fluids and may be a minimally invasive mechanism for early detection of ovarian cancer.

  • Dr. Janna Burdette - University of Illinois at Chicago (2021)

    Project: Tiny proteins in vaginal lavage for early detection of high grade serious ovarian cancer

  • Dr. Amy Bregar - Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School (2022)

    Project: Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer by Uterine Lavage DNA Genome-Wide Methylation Analysis