Project Description: Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of death among women in the United States, and the survival rate for diagnosed ovarian cancer patients is very low. The domestic hen has recently been demonstrated to be an excellent model system to study ovarian cancer because mature laying hens undergo a relatively high rate of spontaneous ovarian cancer (Fredrickson, 1987, Rodrigues-Burford et al., 2001). Therefore, the hen is an excellent in vivo model for ovarian cancer, but there is currently no acceptable corollary avian in vitro model. The specific aim of this proposal is to develop #1 avian ovarian surface epithelial cell lines (normal ovarian cells; OSE), and #2 ovarian cancer cell lines. It is important to establish these cell lines as an in vitro model that can be employed before moving into larger scale in vivo studies. Specifically, the project relates to the health of rural North Carolina women because the developed normal cell lines can be used in subsequent studies to examine the effect of agricultural pesticides/environmental contaminants to induce a cancer cell phenotype in the OSE , and the cancer cell lines can be used to screen prospective therapeutic compounds. Once the initial investment is made by the Agromedicine Institute, I will employ the data to generate an NIH R01 proposal that will employ the established cell lines in hypothesis driven studies that will provide insight into the mechanisms governing ovarian cancer.

Project Accomplishments:

Annual Report 2005

Outcome Assessment Report

Poster: CA125 Expression in Spontaneous Ovarian Adenocarcinomas from Laying Hens