Caroline Marion

I'm a post-doctoral researcher working in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology under the supervision of Dr. Sharon O'Toole, Dr. Mark Ward, Dr. Melissa Conroy and Prof. John O'Leary. My work focuses on natural killer (NK) cell biology in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC). HGSOC is the most common and aggressive form of epithelial ovarian cancer with a dismal 5-year survival rate of 34%. 75% of patients present with metastatic advanced disease due to the lack of specific symptoms and an effective screening strategy, with 25% of newly diagnosed patient’s presenting with intrinsic chemotherapy resistance NK cells are important cancer-killing cells in our immune system. Ovarian cancer patients with lower numbers of NK cells have worst outcomes and tend to not do as well as patients with higher numbers. In addition, the NK cells in ovarian cancer patients do not work as they should, but our research group believes that by better understanding how current treatments affect NK cells, we can turn this weakness into a strength. The weakened immune system can be overcome with treatments called immunotherapies which give the immune system a boost and helps it to recognise and kill cancer cells.

My research focuses on examining how NK cells are weakened or dysfunctional in patients who do not respond to treatment and how the chemicals that drive NK cells move towards the cancer in the body of HGSOC patients. But also, it focuses on designing an NK cell therapy by modifying healthy NK cells to enable them to travel to tumours, to restore the weakened immune system and to boost tumour destruction in HGSOC.