Research Profile: Matt Block, MD, PhD
MOCA awarded Matt Block, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic, a $100,000 Research Award at our Annual Meeting in May for the project, “MC220601: FRaDCs plus Pembrolizumab for Patients with Advanced Stage Ovarian Cancer.” MOCA has been involved in this project since the early stages of development at Mayo Clinic. Our 2024 Research Award funding will support a clinical trial, testing a cancer vaccine and immunotherapy for women with recurrent ovarian cancer.
Dr. Block shares about this promising MOCA funded project in his own words, below. 
Why is MOCA’s research funding critical to the advancement of your project?
“While we were fortunate to receive federal funding for our clinical trial, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) instituted across-the-board budget cuts, limiting our funding to below what would be needed to complete the trial and correlative research. In short, the project would not have been completed without MOCA’s support.”
How does this project offer hope to survivors?
“This project is a clinical trial testing a cancer vaccine in combination with immunotherapy for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. It offers a novel option with promising early data for patients with otherwise limited treatment choices.”
Why would you encourage others to support MOCA’s research efforts?
“With our current tools to detect and treat ovarian cancer, we are still catching the disease at advanced stages, and our treatments are most often not achieving permanent cures. We need to develop better ways to detect and treat this disease, and these will only be achieved through research like that which MOCA supports.”
Your donations to MOCA help advance vital research needed to change the future of ovarian cancer. Make your gift today, here.
