American Cancer Society and Break Through Cancer Unite to Outsmart Ovarian Cancer

ATLANTA, September 25, 2025 - More than 20,000 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, and more than 12,000 women are expected to die from the disease. Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Break Through Cancer are announcing a strategic collaboration that will aim to advance ovarian cancer awareness and prevention, as well as help to save lives. This alliance will turn two decades of scientific advances into action by combining research, education, awareness, marketing, and policy strategies to support those at risk of ovarian cancer and their clinicians.

"The Outsmart Ovarian Cancer campaign seeks to close the gap between science and practice to ensure that patients and health care providers know the facts, the options, and have the potential to stop ovarian cancer before it starts," said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society. "This awareness campaign aims to give everyone their best chance to outsmart ovarian cancer."

For almost two decades, scientists have known that the majority of lethal ovarian cancers begin in the fallopian tubes. This discovery opened the door to new prevention strategies: opportunistic salpingectomy, or the surgical removal of fallopian tubes at the time of another surgical procedure. Opportunistic salpingectomy is a feasible and safe gynecologic practice that can reduce an individual patient's ovarian cancer risk by up to 80%¹. Patients should consider the procedure instead of tubal ligation or at the time of hysterectomy or other abdominal and pelvic surgeries. Despite the availability of additional preventive interventions, critical lifesaving knowledge has yet to reach those who could most benefit.

Today, ACS and Break Through Cancer are determined to raise awareness of preventative interventions and turn science into action. Grounded in the latest research, this initiative will focus on raising awareness about the origins of ovarian cancer and giving people strategies to reduce the risk of developing the disease, the sixth most common cause of cancer deaths for women in the U.S.

"With the American Cancer Society's national platform and Break Through Cancer's scientific engine, we are joining forces to bring this knowledge to millions of women," said Tyler Jacks, president of Break Through Cancer. "The Outsmart Ovarian Cancer campaign is poised to share emerging research, inform patients, and support health care providers with resources and evolving prevention strategies."

From Research to Policy to Practice

The Outsmart Ovarian Cancer campaign is grounded in years of multi-institutional research in the United States and around the world. The campaign specifically builds on recent efforts by Rebecca Stone, MD, at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Kara Long, MD, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In 2022, Break Through Cancer launched the Intercepting Ovarian Cancer TeamLab, a scientific collaboration uniting researchers and clinicians from five of the nation's top cancer centers: Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to tackle ovarian cancer through radical collaboration.

TeamLab has advanced early detection science, launched clinical studies, and achieved a major policy milestone: helping to establish a new ICD-10 encounter code for opportunistic salpingectomy, an important step toward making the procedure a recognized, reimbursable, and trackable standard of care.

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1 - https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2809261

Additional Resources:

About Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian Cancer - Causes, Risk Factors & Prevention
Cancer Statistics, 2025
Cancer Risk 360 Screening Tool

About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. For more than 110 years, we have been improving the lives of people with cancer and their families as the only organization combating cancer through advocacy, research, and patient support. We are committed to ensuring everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. To learn more, visit cancer.org or call our 24/7 helpline at 1-800-227-2345. Connect with us on Facebook,X, and Instagram.

About Break Through Cancer
Founded in 2021, Break Through Cancer empowers outstanding researchers and physicians to both intercept and find cures for several of the deadliest cancers by stimulating radical collaboration among outstanding cancer research institutions, including its founding partners: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The Foundation is supported by a Board of Directors from the five partner institutions and a Scientific Advisory Board of U.S. cancer experts.