Texas legislators search for answers to ovarian cancer

The KK125 Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, established by State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian), District 88, and State Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station), District 12, donated $50,000 to ovarian cancer research at MD Anderson. The contribution honors the legislators’ mothers, who both died of the disease in 2013.

“It’s a positive way to project our anger with the horrible disease that took our mothers,” says King, whose mother was treated at MD Anderson. “We must make sure this doesn’t happen to our wives, sisters and friends.”

Kacal describes ovarian cancer as “a dreadful disease with no answers.”

King and Kacal bonded over the loss of their mothers after their freshman year in the Texas Legislature in 2013 and decided to find those answers.

“Where do you go to solve cancer questions? Where are the solutions? They all happen at MD Anderson,” Kacal says. “MD Anderson is where cancers come to die.”

The gift will support research in CA-125, a protein long recognized for its role in predicting ovarian cancer recurrence and now shows promise as a screening tool for early-stage disease.

The legislators also created the foundation to honor their close friend, the late Andrea Sloan, who was executive director and general counsel for the Texas Advocacy Project until her death from ovarian cancer on New Year’s Day 2014. Sloan also was treated at MD Anderson.

The representatives, their families, their MD Anderson care teams and Sloan’s family and friends attended a Dec. 15 check presentation. MD Anderson President Ron DePinho, M.D., thanked KK125 for its generosity and recognized the extraordinary efforts of the caregivers of the three women who inspired the foundation.