A Second Life
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Nancy McKinstry Endowment Fund for Ovarian Cancer Research. The response from friends, family, former colleagues and clients has brought Greg and I so much joy. Together, you have helped this fund surpass $1 million, a milestone I had once only dreamed of.
Your generosity is already making a profound difference. Because of you, the Fund awarded its first two Nancy McKinstry Trainee Excellence Awards in late 2024, supporting emerging scientists whose fresh ideas and determination are shaping the future of ovarian cancer research. Their early progress has been remarkable:
- Forouh Kalantari, whose work explores a potential new metabolic pathway to target ARID1A-mutant clear cell ovarian cancer, recently completed her PhD at UBC and began fellowship training in Clinical Chemistry at a prestigious institution in the United States. Her research has revealed a possible interaction between S100A4 and G6PD, with a manuscript now in preparation. Thanks to your support, she was able to complete her doctoral research and transition into the next phase of her medical science career.
- Vanessa Chan, a PhD candidate developing a novel immunotherapy for peritoneal metastases, presented her findings at the Gordon Research Conference in Italy, is preparing a publication, and was awarded the prestigious CIHR Doctoral Scholarship. She shared that this award allowed her to dedicate more time to her research — and reminded her that her work truly is making an impact.
In early 2026, the Fund will support three additional trainees, ensuring that even more bright young researchers can contribute to the breakthroughs of tomorrow in ovarian cancer research. Your support is creating real momentum to fuel progress and save lives.
In addition to the above Greg and I are pleased to support another initiative that will further ovarian cancer research, it is to drive innovation in precision oncology and cancer care with the use of AI. The research team is focused on improving treatment options for ovarian cancer treatment through immunotherapies and PARP inhibitors. While these novel therapies have shown great promise, they don’t work for every patient and understanding why is critical. To help address this, the team is applying innovative AI models to predict how individual patients may respond to these treatments that can be used as a biomarker to guide clinical decisions. This approach brings us closer to truly personalized therapy and better outcomes for ovarian cancer.
Next, we are excited to take the next step in enabling the team to rapidly implement AI tools for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. While the current project focuses on predicting patient response to new therapies, this broader effort will create the foundation needed to bring AI into everyday cancer care. Despite significant research advancements in imaging, omics, and clinical AI, their full potential remains unrealized due to the absence of infrastructure that integrates and leverages all data modalities for clinical deployment. This initiative addresses that gap by building scalable, secure cloud systems, standardized data pipelines, and clinician-friendly tools to bring AI from research into real-world practice.
Leveraging BC Cancer’s unique province-wide network and access to rich, multi-modal datasets, this proposal aims to innovate and validate robust AI models for diagnosis, prognosis, personalized treatment, and the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. These models will be designed for real-time clinical decision support, with strong translational potential and a focus on equitable impact across diverse patient populations including those in rural and remote communities.
It is an exciting time for advanced ovarian cancer research we are grateful for your continued support to help save the lives of women not just in Canada, but around the world.