Cranbury-based Mike & Patti Hennessy Foundation announced a major grant to City of Hope to support early-stage research focused on catching ovarian cancer earlier through minimally invasive methods.
The funding is part of the foundation’s multi-year Ovarian Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Initiative, which targets the earliest and most underfunded stages of ovarian cancer research. While early-stage ovarian cancer boasts a survival rate exceeding 90 percent, only about 20 percent of cases are caught early due to limitations in current screening tools like ultrasound and CA-125 blood markers.
The grant supports pioneering work led by Dr. Mihae Song and Dr. Patrick Pirrotte at City of Hope, who are investigating novel, minimally invasive approaches to capture early biological signals of the disease.
Crucially for New Jersey patients and health care providers, the initiative includes a collaboration with the Hackensack Meridian Hennessy Institute for Cancer Prevention and Applied Molecular Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center. Established in memory of Mike and Patti Hennessy, the New Jersey-based institute will serve as a vital clinical site to help translate this early-stage research toward clinical validation.
“The Hennessy Institute was created to bring cancer risk assessment, prevention, and early detection directly to patients, and this collaboration with City of Hope extends that mission into promising new research,” Dr. Elias Obeid, medical director of the Hackensack Meridian Hennessy Institute, said. “We are honored to help advance this work in memory of Mike and Patti Hennessy and their deeply personal commitment to improving cancer outcomes.”
Shannon Pulaski, speaking on behalf of the foundation, emphasized the urgent need for investment in this space:
“Today, there is still no reliable test to catch ovarian cancer at its earliest… We are proud to support the researchers at City of Hope working to accelerate that progress, so ovarian cancer can be caught earlier, and more women have the chance at better outcomes.”
Through this initiative, the Mike & Patti Hennessy Foundation continues to bridge the funding gap for early-stage innovations, aiming to ensure that a patient’s outcome is no longer dictated by a late-stage diagnosis.
