Associate Professor Logan Walker from the Mackenzie Cancer Research Group will lead one of the many University of Otago research projects successfully funded this year by the Health Research Council to the tune of more than $40 million.
Associate Professor Walker receives $1,145,197 over 36 months to investigate the impact of germline copy number varation on endometrial cancer risk.
Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological tumour in developed countries, and the incidence of this disease is increasing. The disease is associated with significant morbidity due to surgical and radiation treatment options in affected women, increased mortality for Māori, and increased incidence for Pacific women.
Furthermore, a significant proportion of endometrial cancers arise in a subset of women who inherit genetic changes that increase risk of developing the disease. However, for most of these women the changes underlying their disease remain undetermined. Our proposal aims to exploit a large international collaboration to identify and functionally characterise genetic changes associated with endometrial cancer.
Discoveries from this unique proposal will provide candidate risk factors for future diagnostic and treatment protocols, and provide new insights into the aetiology of endometrial tumour development.