Yow Cancer Fund backs OSU research

Ohio State University researchers studying uterine cancer received a boost on Wednesday with a $100,000 gift from the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, named after the late North Carolina State women’s basketball coach who wished for the organization to support cancer research in every Final Four host city.

The money will help fund a project at Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital and Comprehensive Cancer Center that seeks to help doctors create targeted treatments for women with the disease.

The grant was publicly announced at Nationwide Arena, which is hosting the NCAA women’s Final Four games on Friday and the championship game on Sunday.

“We donate this on behalf of all women’s basketball coaches, players and fans across the country,” Stephanie Glance, the fund’s chief executive officer, told The Dispatch by phone. “It is something that women’s basketball can do through the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in the fight against all women’s cancers that far exceeds wins and losses on the court.”

The grant will fund research into the uterine cancer that forms in the organ’s lining, or endometrium. It is the most common gynecological cancer in the United States, with about 60,000 women diagnosed annually and about 11,000 dying each year. Though an increasing number of women are diagnosed and an increasing number die each year, little research funds are devoted to the disease, said Dr. David Cohn, director of gynecologic oncology at the James.

The grant will allow researchers to review the molecular, or genetic, profiles of tumors from more than 700 women who have Yow had endometrial cancer to determine which are linked to recurrence or death and which are not, said Paul Goodfellow, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the James and the Cancer Center.

Oncologists will be able to apply the findings to other patients to determine whether they should undergo chemotherapy and/or radiation or can avoid those toxic and painful treatments, Cohn said. The project also will drive research into new therapies based on genetic profiles, Goodfellow said.

Glance said the Cancer Fund gathers research proposals in each Final Four city then works with an advisory committee of top oncologists at the V Foundation for Cancer Research, a charity founded by ESPN and former North Carolina State men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano. The fund’s board chooses recipients based on the committee’s recommendations.

Yow died in 2009 at age 66 after a 22-year, on-again, off-again battle with breast cancer. She had founded the Cancer Fund before her death to help fight all cancers affecting women.

Yow coached basketball for 38 years, including 34 seasons at North Carolina State University. Since her death, the Cancer Fund has given $1.15 million in Final Four cities, part of the $5.63 million total it has donated since its inception in 2007.

She was a founding member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, won a 1988 Olympic gold medal as a coach, and is in numerous halls of fame, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. She received the inaugural Jimmy V ESPY for Perseverance in 2007 and was named national Coach of the Year eight times.

Yow went to 20 NCAA tournaments and made 11 trips to the Sweet 16, and a trip to the Elite Eight and the Final Four in 1998.