Preserving life and future wellbeing

Your support is helping Professor Karla Hutt find ways to protect young women and girls undergoing cancer treatment – ensuring the impact of cancer at a young age does not dramatically affect their health and wellbeing later in life.

A cancer journey doesn’t begin and end with treatment, the impact can be felt long after. And with more people now surviving cancer, ensuring a good quality of life – free from side effects – is just as important.

With more effective lifesaving treatments now becoming available, new fields of cancer research are opening to explore the long-term effects these treatments may have on the body.

Fertility is especially vulnerable

With a career dedicated to protecting quality of life for women who have undergone cancer treatment, Professor Karla Hutt has turned her attention to the impact of one of these effective new therapies.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a new class of immunotherapy drugs used to treat a range of cancer types – including cancers common in young females. While these treatments are effective in helping the immune system fight cancer, recent discoveries show they might also be causing harm to ovaries.

Ovarian health is not only crucial for having children but also in maintaining hormonal health in women.

This is an important area of research, and your generous support means the answers Karla is finding will help improve survivorship for many women in the future.

For Karla, pursuing these answers comes with extra personal motivation.

“My best friend’s daughter had cancer as a child,” she shared. “The treatment she received was lifesaving, but also likely damaged her ovaries. At the time of her treatment, and still today, there are very limited options for protecting young females undergoing cancer treatment from life-long consequences on their fertility and health.”

Changing the future

Partially funded by the Robert Bulley Charitable Foundation and Wood Family Foundation, Karla’s research is testing new ways to protect the ovary from damage during ICI treatment. In their first year of study, Karla and her team have already made some important discoveries.

“Our early results are exciting because they show us where the damage may be coming from,” said Karla.

“If we can pinpoint these mechanisms, we can begin developing strategies to protect the ovaries while still allowing these powerful drugs to fight cancer.”

Karla’s findings already suggest there is a delicate balance to find while treating cancer to protect the long-term quality of life for patients.

In the following years, Karla and her team will continue this research, but the initial findings are important because they may lead to new ways to reduce side effects from cancer treatments – not just in the ovaries, but possibly other organs too.

“This work would not be possible without the generosity of our supporters. Philanthropic funding gives us the freedom to ask bold questions and pursue discoveries that could change the future for young women facing cancer,” said Karla.

“Ensuring survivors of cancer have a good quality of life long after they’ve survived cancer is incredibly important to the Robert C. Bulley Charitable Fund", said Rick Horvat, Chairperson.

“Robert’s legacy is one of kindness and commitment to the wellbeing of others – for females who have been through cancer treatment, ensuring they still have the option to have children if they choose is crucial to their long-term wellbeing. We’re proud to be helping find ways of protecting and preserving fertility and hormonal health for these women.”

It’s still early days, but Karla’s work is a big step toward finding safer treatments and helping women make informed choices about their cancer treatment and fertility.

“The Wood Family Foundation is committed to supporting medical research. Survivors of cancer deserve to live their lives free from side effects and other negative impacts. We’re excited by the research Professor Hutt is conducting to preserve fertility for females undergoing cancer treatment and are proud to be supporting her valuable work,” said Carolyn McEwin, Director of the Wood Family Foundation.