USU Center is “Hidden Gem” for Gynecologic Cancer Care and Research
By Vivian Mason
For retired Air Force Col. (Dr.) Yovanni Casablanca, it’s been the honor of a lifetime to be the third director and principal investigator of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences’ (USU) Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence (GYN-CoE). Since graduating from USU in 2002, it has been her mission to spread the word about the GYN-CoE’s incredible work.
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| Retired Air Force Col. Yovanni Casablanca, M.D. is a USU Class of 2002 alumna and the current program director of USU's Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence (GYN-CoE). (Photo credit: Col. Yovanni Casablanca, M.D.) |
“This is something I never could have imagined for myself in my early twenties when starting my career,” Casablanca marvels.
Although the GYN-CoE is a USU center, its offices are located at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; however, the center’s central laboratory, the Women’s Health Integrated Research Center (WHIRC), is located at Inova Health System in northern Virginia along with additional educational elements of the National Capital Consortium fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology.
Casablanca describes the GYN-CoE as a “hidden gem” at USU, but insists their work is anything but hidden.
“Our science speaks for itself. We have had success nationally and internationally with presenting our scientific work, and the GYN-CoE is very well published. It’s also established itself as a broad asset to the DoD, as well as to USU.”
Gynecologic cancer is an umbrella term representing seven different cancers that occur in women’s reproductive organs, including ovarian cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, uterine/endometrial cancer, vulvar cancer, primary peritoneal cancer, and gestational trophoblastic disease. As roughly 15-20% of the U.S. military and two million of the veteran population consists of women, addressing gynecologic diseases is a priority for Casablanca’s team at the GYN-CoE. Their not-so-secret weapon? Their central laboratory, the WHIRC.
The GYN-CoE WHIRC is made up of a diverse research team of faculty-level scientists, technicians, and informaticists working to identify molecular alterations in gynecologic cancers and develop novel strategies for prevention, early detection, and treatment of gynecologic diseases.
The WHIRC faculty includes retired Col. Larry Maxwell, who has served as a USU faculty member in support of these programs both in uniform and as a civilian, as well as Dr. Thomas Conrads, an acclaimed biochemist and proteomics expert who was recruited to launch the WHIRC in 2011 as its Chief Scientific Officer.
Over time, the GYN-CoE’s capabilities have become more sophisticated, leading to numerous collaborations both nationally and internationally with the world’s leading research laboratories investigating gynecologic tumors. In addition, the center has also expanded its focus from only investigating cancers in development of novel therapeutic strategies to investigation of precancerous gynecologic disorders in development of preventive strategies, as well as better benign gynecologic tumors to improve diagnostic approaches.
But that’s not all, Casablanca adds.
“We also provide support for pan-cancer investigations, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, and kidney cancer.”
She goes on to explain that the GYN-CoE is a phenomenal resource for USU studies on a variety of diseases because of the advanced level of skill and knowledge their faculty possesses, as well as their facilities.
“The lab and its scientists have developed very novel and robust techniques in two major fields: proteomics and laser capture microdissection,” Casablanca explains. “Proteomics is the study of how the biological effectors of the cell and proteins and protein interactions can lead to diseases downstream and laser capture microdissection describes a technique that isolates microscopic compartments within tissues to perform precise and specific analyses of the microenvironment.”
The GYN-CoE’s experts evaluate the proteomic composition and analysis of samples from patients with cancer and compare them to normal samples. Center specialists are broadening their reach by using their proteomic experts to work with other cancer studies.
“Dr. Clifton Dalgard, director of the Center for Military Precision Health (CMPH) and associate professor in USU’s School of Medicine, is also one of our major collaborators,” Casablanca adds. “He and his team perform all of the genomics, genetics, and DNA/RNA analyses.”
GYN-CoE and CMPH work hand-in-hand in their research to develop a more profound understanding of what occurs during various analyses. Much more information and insight are gained into these processes by looking at diseases in different ways.
GYN-CoE also collaborates with the Joint Pathology Center (JPC) in Silver Spring, MD, led by Director Col. Joel Moncur. The JPC houses thousands and thousands of specimens from hundreds of years ago, including specimens from patients during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
In collaboration with the JPC, the GYN-CoE has the ability to, for example, study patients affected by pandemics.
“We were doing this during COVID,” Casablanca says, “and also trying to understand on a proteomic level, and via proteomic support, what’s happening to patients who die of COVID.”
Thus, the GYN-CoE’s wide-ranging capabilities with proteomics are becoming more recognized and more well-known, though Casablanca admits that she’s run into people on campus who weren’t aware that USU had a proteomics expert center.
“We want people to know that we’re part of the university, and that we collaborate with scientists and researchers to help them make their work more meaningful by adding this proteomic analysis to whatever they’re doing.”
Speaking to the other major field she addressed, Casablanca explains that another unique attribute of the GYN-CoE is the laser capture microdissection that it uses for tissue specimens.
As previously described, laser capture microdissection describes a technique that isolates microscopic compartments within tissues to perform precise and specific analyses of the microenvironment. To achieve these analyses, a microscopic slide is made by sectioning it very thinly. The laser then selects certain parts of the tissue on the slide holding cancer cells. Through this process, selective tissue analysis can be done on the DNA, RNA, and proteins.
This laser capture capability has been investigated for use in breast cancer, kidney cancer, and various other cancers. It is also being looked at for use in other diseases, even benign conditions that affect the military population, as well as for women who don’t have cancer.
In the end, Casablanca expresses that the GYN-CoE has an incredible amount to offer, and the opportunity for collaboration comes down to awareness and recognition of the Center’s value.
The GYN-CoE, she explains, gives the USU community the opportunity to incorporate laser capture microdissection and proteomics into their research studies, and through greater awareness of the Center, she’s optimistic that there will be plenty of great collaborations to come.
“The Gynecologic Cancer Center’s program has a heart and soul of its own,” Casablanca concludes. “We have such a great team here. Hopefully, with more collaborations, publications, and more awareness, the GYN-CoE will be recognized as one of the flagship centers at USU.”
