Dr. Mark Nachtigal sheds light on the workings of an insidious disease
Ovarian cancer continues to be one of the deadliest forms of cancer. There is currently no way to screen for the disease, so it has often advanced and spread to other parts of the body by the time it is detected. And, even when treatment successfully removes the cancer, it tends to recur and eventually become resistant to treatment.
Dalhousie cancer researcher Dr. Mark Nachtigal is determined to find a way around this complex and devastating disease. “There are many different types of ovarian cancer,” notes Dr. Nachtigal, an associate professor in the departments of Pharmacology and Medicine. “We are working with the six most common forms, to learn what is the same or different among them – in terms of risk factors, how the disease arises and progresses, how it responds to treatment, and what molecules could be biomarkers for early detection.”
Dr. Nachtigal’s ultimate goal is to develop a blood test that could be used to screen for ovarian cancer at early, more treatable stages of the disease. His quest is personal: he has lost four relatives to ovarian cancer.
While probing the mysteries of ovarian cancer, Dr. Nachtigal is also developing potential new approaches to therapy. “We’re looking for new targets and new agents,” he says. “For example, we’ve found that naturally occurring inhibitor proteins can turn off the signals that make certain ovarian cancers aggressive. This could be a viable new therapy that may overcome the cancer’s tendency to recur.”
Dr. Nachtigal works closely with colleagues in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, who provide him with human cancer tissue samples and a perspective that keeps his work clinically relevant.
A Canadian Cancer Society Research Scientist, Dr. Nachtigal’s work is primarily funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada with funds from the Canadian Cancer Society. Dr. Nachtigal joined Dalhousie Medical School in 1998 from the University of California in San Francisco.