NASHVILLE -- The Kay Yow Cancer Fund, in partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and The V Foundation for Cancer Research, has awarded a $100,000 ovarian cancer research grant to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Annually, the Kay Yow Cancer Fund supports a cancer research grant to an institution based in the host city of the NCAA Women’s Final Four. This year’s $100,000 grant will be awarded to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to continue research on imaging ovarian cancer with novel small molecule radiotracers of cyclooxygenase-1. The Kay Yow Cancer Fund is privileged to work in collaboration with The V Foundation Scientific Advisory Board to identify and review grant proposals supporting women’s cancer research.
Susan Donohoe, Executive Director of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, presented Dineo Khabele, M.D., and Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., with a ceremonial check at a news conference at the Vanderbilt University Student Life Center on Jan. 21, in advance of the 2014 NCAA Women’s Final Four, to be held in Nashville, April 6 and 8.
“Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in women and the most common cause of gynecologic cancer death,” Donohoe said. “The Kay Yow Cancer Fund has awarded a grant in each Women’s Final Four city since 2009, totaling $600,000 in women’s cancer research support. Research programs such as this one are critical as we continue to search for the cure.”
“Coach Yow was very specific in her direction that the Kay Yow Cancer Fund support research to enhance the quality of life of those individuals battling cancer and to help find a cure,” said Nora Lynn Finch, Atlantic Coast Conference Senior Associate Commissioner and President of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. “It is fitting to present a research grant to Drs. Khabele and Marnett and the Vanderbilt-Ingram
Cancer Center in the host city of the 2014 Women’s Final Four. This research grant will continue the legacy of Coach Yow and the Fund’s mission of supporting women’s cancer research.”
