The Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Florida (OCAF) is pleased to be associated with funding two grants through the Teresa Rosebrough Research Fund.

Nurse Educational Initiative

The first grant of $5,000 was awarded to The University of Central Florida Foundation. The funding will be used by Dr. Victoria Loerzel of the UCF College of Nursing for research on the effectiveness of the Nurses Educational Initiative (NEI). The NEI program uses both scientific material and actual patient accounts to train nursing students. This combination of material and delivery is an innovative step in training. The Nurses Educational Initiative will improve the quality of nursing care by coaching the nurses to ask the right questions. The NEI curriculum is offered during a single class period. A pre test is administered to determine what the students know about ovarian cancer. Afterwards scientific information is disseminated, followed by two patient advocates describing their journey with ovarian cancer with a Q&A session. At the end of the presentations, an evaluation is administered to determine the program’s effectiveness. Students are given a take home bag with educational information to further reinforce the information.

Dr. Loerzel will use the grant specifically to administer the pre and post surveys as well as an evaluation of the facilitator and oversight of the statistical results of all materials gathered.

According to Dr. Jean D’Meza Leuner PhD,RN,CNE Dean and professor of the UCF College of Nursing, “The College of Nursing at UCF is extremely pleased to be working with the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Florida. This generous grant from the Teresa Rosebrough Research Fund will support Dr. Vicki Loerzel, a UCF oncology nurse researcher, in her work to evaluate an educational program for health care providers. The College of Nursing welcomes new partnerships and opportunities to influence health outcomes and this initiative is extremely important given the fact that ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among American women.”

For more information regarding this program or to sponsor this program please contact the OCAF office 407-339-0024.

Cellular Therapy in Combination with Cytokins as Treatment for Ovarian Cancer

The second grant of $10,000 was awarded to Susan Ingersoll, PhD of Florida Hospital Cancer Institute. Her project titled “Cellular Therapy in Combination with Cytokines as Treatment for Ovarian Cancer” is researching development of new strategies to treat this life-threatening disease. A recent approach to the treatment of cancer has been cellular therapy in which the patient is treated with blood stem cells, which are present in umbilical cord blood (UCB), to elicit a response against the tumor. The immune cells from the UCB kill the tumor cells in the patient. The aim of the research proposal is to test the novel use of intraperitoneal (within the peritoneal cavity, i.e., the area that contains the abdominal organs) cellular therapy (cells form UCB) in combination with known cytokines, which are signaling proteins, and/or chemotherapy to treat ovarian cancer. Intraperitoneal therapy has recently been suggested to be feasible for the treatment of advanced primary and recurrent ovarian cancer. It is anticipated that these studies would open further avenues for newer treatment options/regimens for patients suffering with ovarian cancer. The study on “Cellular Therapy in Combination with Cytokines Treatment for Ovarian Cancer” was selected to be presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists annual meeting in Tampa in 2008.

For more information regarding this program, to sponsor or to donate please contact the OCAF office at 407-339-0024.