Lucy Gilbert, MD, Chair of the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology (GBDO), received the award for the Best Paper published in Gynecologic Oncology for 2023 during the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists in San Diego, on March 16. The award was given for the paper titled, “Safety and efficacy of mirvetuximab soravtansine, a folate receptor alpha (FRα)-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), in combination with bevacizumab in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer,” which was the most cited and one of the most read papers in 2023 based on the journal’s editorial team’s assessment of the metrics.
“Dr. (David M.) O’Malley, and I, on behalf of our co-authors, are very pleased that, in mirvetuximab soravtansine, women with folate-receptor α platinum-resistant ovarian cancer now have a highly effective treatment option,” said Dr. Gilbert upon receiving the award in San Diego. “We are grateful to Gynecologic Oncology for giving us an efficient, far-reaching platform to publish our trial results, to all the women who so altruistically participated in our trial, to the dedicated research teams who were instrumental in running the trial, and finally to Immunogen for bringing this ADC to the clinical space.”
In addition to her role as Chair of the GBDO, is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill, and Director of both the Multidisciplinary Gynecologic Cancer Service and the Division of Gynecological Oncology at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). She also holds an Associate Appointment, Gynecologic Oncology at St. Mary’s Hospital Center as well as the Robert Kinch Chair in Women’s Health in the FMHS, which was established to promote research into the various and often underserved elements of women’s health, including reproduction, infertility, perinatal medicine, gynecological oncology and issues of women’s health in an aging population.
Dr. Gilbert is widely regarded for her research in gynecologic cancers. In 2002, she started the Women’s Health Research Unit of Gynecologic Oncology and Gynecology at the MUHC, and in 2008, launched the Detecting Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers Early (DOvEE) research program. The program evolved into the Detecting Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers Early using genomics, or DOvEEgene program, for which Dr. Gilbert currently holds a Genome Canada grant for $6.2 million. Since launching the program, Dr. Gilbert has received nearly a dozen philanthropic awards to support her research and was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence in Canada in 2021 for her contribution to research in women’s health.
As a principal investigator, Dr. Gilbert is currently conducting more than 30 clinical trials. She has twice been recognized by Québec Science magazine for her scientific discoveries, and a genomic Pap test she developed received the magazine’s Découverte de l’année in 2018.
Congratulations Dr. Gilbert!
Photos:
One is of the Editor of Gynecologic oncology, Dr David Cohn with me, and the other is with Dr Cohn (immediate right), and coauthors, Dr David O’Malley (immediate left), who is a committee member for the NCI Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee’s Ovarian Task Force, and Ursula Matoulis, Chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.