Keynote speakers

Elizabeth M. Swisher, M.D. is a professor in gynecologic oncology and adjunct professor in medical genetics and is the director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She has a research and clinical focus on the genetics and prevention of gynecologic cancers.
Dr. Swisher earned a B.S. from Yale University and received her M.D. from the University of California at San Diego. She completed her residency at the University of Washington in Ob/Gyn and a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Washington University St Louis. She is board certified in gynecologic oncology and obstetrics and gynecology.

Dr. Swisher's clinical interests include gynecologic cancer, cancer prevention, cancer genetics, novel therapeutics and minimal invasive surgery.

Five recent publications:

• Norquist BM et al. Mutations in Homologous Recombination Genes and Outcomes in Ovarian Carcinoma Patients in GOG 218: An NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group Study. Clin Cancer Res. 2018 Feb 15;24(4):777-783
• Coleman RL, et al. Rucaparib maintenance treatment for recurrent ovarian carcinoma after response to platinum therapy (ARIEL3): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2017 Oct 28;390(10106)
• Swisher EM et al. Rucaparib in relapsed, platinum-sensitive high-grade ovarian carcinoma (ARIEL2 Part 1): an international, multicentre, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2017 Jan;18(1):75-87
• Stover EH, et al. Biomarkers of Response and Resistance to DNA Repair Targeted Therapies. Clin Cancer Res. 2016 Dec 1;22(23):5651-5660
• Swisher EM, et al. Somatic Mosaic Mutations in PPM1D and TP53 in the Blood of Women With Ovarian Carcinoma. JAMA Oncol. 2016 Mar;2(3):370-2.

Iain McNeish is Professor of Oncology and Head of the Division of Cancer within the Department of Surgery and Cancer, at Imperial College London. He is also the Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre and Cancer theme lead in the Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Externally, he is Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Gynaecological Clinical Study Group.

His research focuses on ovarian cancer, specifically developing improved therapies through improved understanding of disease biology. With James Brenton in Cambridge, he co-leads the BriTROC translational research collaborative and holds a programme grant from Cancer Research UK investigating copy number alterations in ovarian high grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) as a possible prognostic and predictive biomarker. His group has also recently developed novel transplantable murine models of HGSC using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to allow investigation of novel therapies in an immunocompetent model. These transplantable cells are freely available to researchers.

Five recent publications:

• Macintyre G, et al. Copy number signatures and mutational processes in ovarian carcinoma. Nat Genet. 2018 Sep;50(9):1262-1270.
• Walton JB, et al. CRISPR/Cas9-derived models of ovarian high grade serous carcinoma targeting Brca1, Pten and Nf1, and correlation with platinum sensitivity. Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 4;7(1):16827.
• Walton J, et al. CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Trp53 and Brca2 Knockout to Generate Improved Murine Models of Ovarian High-Grade Serous Carcinoma. Cancer Res. 2016 Oct 15;76(20):6118-6129
• McNeish IA. Neoantigens in ovarian cancer: embarrassment of riches or needles in a haystack?  Clin Cancer Res. 2018 Jul 6.
• Goranova T, et al. Safety and utility of image-guided research biopsies in relapsed high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma-experience of the BriTROC consortium. Br J Cancer. 2017 May 9;116(10):1294-1301.