Ross Berkowitz, MD
William H. Baker Professor of Gynecology; Chief of Gynecologic Surgery,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
2008-2009 BCRF Project:
Co-investigators:
Ursula Matulonis, MD, and
Zhigang Charles Wang, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham & Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
The strong link between breast and ovarian cancer has been recognized by patients and their doctors for many years. There are many good reasons, including the use of oophorectomy to treat breast cancer prior to development of more effective hormone-based drugs and the frequent association of breast and ovarian cancer in families. Ovarian cancer is a lethal disease with a mortality rate that exceeds all other gynecologic cancers. Women with disease-associated alterations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 are predisposed to both breast and ovarian cancer. For those women with BRCA1 alterations, they are predisposed to get a high-grade, estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer and, if they contract ovarian cancer, a high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital has uncovered genetic links between these cancers. In particular, this team of researchers believes the two diseases, so-called "basal-like" breast cancer and high-grade serous ovarian cancer, are similar in a number of respects. The Boston team intends to explore the genetics of these two diseases with the purpose of uncovering the similarities, and studying them more carefully. They believe that the genetic alterations in common may be the most important clues to the cause and treatment of the two diseases individually.
Bio:
Ross Berkowitz, MD is the William H. Baker Professor of Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. In addition, he is also the Co-Director of the Women's Cancers Program at Dana-Farber and the Director of the Gynecologic Cancer Program at Dana-Farber/Partners Cancercare and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
During the past twenty years, the focus of his research has been in the areas of gestational trophoblastic disease and ovarian neoplasia. Investigations in gestational trophoblastic disease have dealt with identifying risk factors for development of these tumors as well as advancing understanding of the natural history of these diseases including subsequent reproductive experience. His research in ovarian neoplasia has concerned both the development of innovative and novel therapies as well as molecular biologic studies to identify genetic changes in ovarian neoplasia and differences in the pathways of development of borderline ovarian tumors, invasive ovarian cancers, and peritoneal cancers.
Dr. Berkowitz earned his MD from Boston University and had his residency training in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and then in obstetrics and gynecology at the Boston Hospital for Women. He completed his fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the Boston Hospital for Women and joined the faculty at Brigham and Women's Hospital thereafter.
