Kaile Zagger, COO of Aspira Women’s Health Profile

Kaile Zagger
COO of Aspira Women’s Health


Kaile Zagger, COO of Aspira Women’s Health Certificate

Addressing Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the number 1 cause of gynecologic cancer deaths. Each year 22,000 new cases are diagnosed and there are 14,000 deaths yearly in the United States alone. Ovarian Cancer accounts for 5% of all cancer deaths due to its high mortality rate. One in two women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are expected to die from the disease compared to one in ten women that are expected to die from Breast Cancer. The high mortality rate of Ovarian Cancer. is due to the fact that more than 60% of Ovarian Cancer cases are identified at late stage (III & IV). Solving for early detection and prevention is imperative due to early-stage disease having a much improved 5-year relative survival rate of 92%.

"Aspira Women's Health is transforming women's health with the discovery, development and implementation of innovative testing options and bio-analytical solutions that help physicians assess risk, optimize patient management and improve the chance of an early-stage disease diagnosis of ovarian cancer," says Aspira COO, Kaile Zagger.

In a testament to the company's hard work, an OVA1plus patient, a 34-year-old Ashkenazi Jewish woman with a history of breast cancer in her family. "I was vigilant about getting my yearly mammograms and ensuring that my fate was not that of my mother, my aunts and my grandmother. At the age of 32, I began experiencing symptoms that persisted and lasted for 2 years. I saw 8 physicians of varying specialties in 2 years, none of which made a diagnosis. A few months ago, my physician discovered I had a large adnexal mass. She was smart enough to know that breast and ovarian cancers could be connected and didn't want to take any chances with me. She made the decision to run both Aspira GenetiX and OVA1plus to better understand my risk of Ovarian Cancer. The tests came back troubling, and she immediately sent me to a Gynecologic Oncologist for surgery. I am more than grateful for Aspira and believe that years have been added to my life because of our ability to understand my mass."

Towards the Future

Aspira Women's Health had a recently presented abstract "Serum-based Assay for Adnexal Mass Risk of Ovarian Malignancy" at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 meeting this past June.

The accepted abstract presents data demonstrating the analytical validation performance with initial clinical validity data of Aspira 's OVAWatch™ blood-based biomarker test for ovarian malignancy risk assessment in women with an adnexal mass. Samples collected from real-world evidence studies with a low prevalence population of malignancy detection (5%) were used to validate the algorithm. This technology, a laboratory-developed test, will provide clinicians with a high negative predictive value to provide confidence when managing or monitoring a suspected benign mass and a greater positive predictive value to increase confidence in malignancy risk. The product is expected to be available in Q4 2021.

"OVAWatch™ is intended for use as a noninvasive risk assessment tool used in conjunction with clinical assessment and imaging to determine ovarian cancer risk for patients with an adnexal mass for whom surgery is not currently recommended and for women who may benefit from a monitoring approach,” said Kaile Zagger “Our goal is to categorize disease risk with confidence and to replace CA-125 test as an option for assessing risk in women with suspected begin or low risk pelvic masses”

About Aspira Women’s Health

Aspira Women's Health is dedicated to the discovery, development and utilization of novel high-value diagnostic and bio-analytical solutions that help physicians diagnose, treat, and improve gynecologic health outcomes for women.

What We Do

We are helping to transform women's health with the discovery, development, and utilization of innovative testing options and bio-analytical solutions that help physicians assess risk, optimize patient management, and improve gynecologic health outcomes for women. Our FDA-cleared products OVA1® and OVERA® detect the risk of ovarian malignancy in women with adnexal masses planned for surgery. We are preparing to launch a new disruptive solution in the fall, OVAWatchTM, that will focus on assessing ovarian cancer risk in masses that are not planned for surgery, increasing our portfolio of solutions to cover all masses. With over 10 years of experience in ovarian cancer risk assessment, Aspira Women's Health has expertise in cutting-edge research to inform our next generation of products. Our focus is on delivering products that allow healthcare providers to stratify risk, facilitate early detection and optimize treatment plans. Our mission is to eradicate late-stage gynecological disease diagnosis.

The Brave Visionary

Kaile Zagger, COO of Aspira Women's Health, has an incredible passion for early detection of Ovarian Cancer that has come from experiencing close relatives on her maternal and paternal side of the family succumbing to the disease at young ages include her mother at the age of 46. She lives a life dictated by passion and purpose, coupled with strong expertise in the healthcare and transformational leadership realm. Kaile began her career in the GE Global Leadership Development Program, where she became rooted in strong financial management and Six Sigma methodology. She has spent the past 20+ years building and transforming businesses.

According to a former manager and the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, "Kaile has an innate ability to see a vision that others on the team could not. I have been in countless meetings with her and could not grasp the blueprint that she was whiteboarding ... but ended up being right. She is extremely brave and has an appetite to take big but calculated risks that accelerate business growth. She can construct and deconstruct unlike any other that I have ever witnessed. But, if her true secret sauce that has driven organizational success is her emotional intelligence, inspirational nature, and people-centric management style."

A True Mentor

Kaile has been passionate about mentoring women and ensuring they can achieve great heights in their life. "Women are brilliant, multi-dimensional, instinctive and powerful. When you find strong females that have great potential, Kaile believes that it is imperative to lean in and mentor, develop and provide a safe place for those women to learn, grow and most importantly, provide space and courage to become a risk taker. You must work hard to stay out on the edge of the frontier - the frontier is where greatness and also, great failure reveal themselves. Without great failure, you cannot have great success. Pushing yourself to stay out on the frontier so that both failure and success can be explored, is imperative to cultivation of a great leader. Keep in mind that nothing worth anything is intended to be easy and that when you are doing something great, it will be and should be challenging. Dive into those uncomfortable spaces - its where growth, brilliance, and wisdom are born," says Kaile.

Kaile believes that one can best empower women and help them reach their maximum potential by modeling the following:

• You are capable of anything and everything that you commit to and put your mind to. You can manage your home, be a great mother and transformative executive -you need to decide that you are going to do it and do it with greatness

• Break the glass ceiling -many women have one, and it deeply embedded -we must model shattering the false ceiling and how to climb beyond what was ever thought could be

• Become tempered steel - and seek opportunities that will refine you as steel is refined in the tempering process

• Don't do what is easy, do what makes you great

• "If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right." -Henry Ford

Kaile has been deeply influenced by her late mother, Marilyn. She was a woman that cherished community, friends, family. Kaile was very close to her mother and admired her and how she conducted her life. When her mother passed away, she was 19 years old and left to survive on her own. She went back to college without any parental support and had to create a path to survive. She worked long hours while earning her degree and ended up in a position that only a few globally achieve -a spot in the GE Global Leadership Development Program upon graduation. Through this journey of hardship, loss, and deeply challenging times, Kaile learned important leadership lessons and developed the strength of character that would allow her to lead and transform global organizations, including Aspira. IEWL


Company

Aspira Women’s Health

Management

Kaile Zagger
COO of Aspira Women’s Health

Description

Aspira Women’s Health Inc. (formerly known as Vermillion, Inc. Nasdaq: VRML) is transforming women’s health with the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative testing options and bio-analytical solutions that help physicians assess risk, optimize patient management and improve gynecologic health outcomes for women. OVA1®plus combines our FDA-cleared products OVA1® and OVERA® to detect the risk of ovarian malignancy in women with adnexal masses. ASPiRA GenetiXSM testing offers both targeted and a more comprehensive genetic testing options with a gynecologic focus. Our focus is on delivering products that allow healthcare providers to stratify risk, facilitate early detection, and optimize treatment.


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