Ovarian cancer: pathology, biology, and disease models (original) (raw)
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The detection, treatment, and biology of epithelial ovarian cancer
Journal of ovarian research, 2010
Ovarian cancer is particularly insidious in nature. Its ability to go undetected until late stages coupled with its non-descript signs and symptoms make it the seventh leading cause of cancer related deaths in women. Additionally, the lack of sensitive diagnostic tools and resistance to widely accepted chemotherapy regimens make ovarian cancer devastating to patients and families and frustrating to medical practitioners and researchers. Here, we provide an in-depth review of the theories describing the origin of ovarian cancer, molecular factors that influence its growth and development, and standard methods for detection and treatment. Special emphasis is focused on interactions between ovarian tumors and the innate and adaptive immune system and attempts that are currently underway to devise novel immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of ovarian tumors.
Journal of Proteome Research, 2007
Cancer research in recent years has immensely benefited from the development of novel technologies that enable scientists to perform detailed investigations of genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes. This has invariably furthered knowledge of tumorigenesis and etiology of cancer. The resulting information can, in the foreseeable future, effect a significant change in the pace of cancer research, thereby producing improvements in patient care. Ovarian cancer in particular has received the interest of the scientific community, being the most frequent cause of death from gynecological cancers, characterized by few early symptoms, diagnosis at an advanced stage, as well as poor prognosis. Ovarian cancer is a malignancy in which normal ovarian cells begin to grow in an uncontrolled, abnormal manner and produce tumors in one or both ovaries. Epithelial cancers, the most common ovarian cancers (>80%), develop from cells lining the ovarian surface. Most ovarian cancer research is primarily focused on the early detection and treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer, the more common ovarian malignancy. This review offers an introduction to ovarian cancer, with particular emphasis on human epithelial ovarian cancer. Current methods of detection and therapy are discussed. A survey of promising new protein, gene, and metabolite biomarkers on the horizon is provided. Future prospects for improved diagnosis are offered.
Ovarian Cancer: Biomarkers and Targeted Therapy
Biomedicines
Ovarian cancer is one of the most common causes of death in women as survival is highly dependent on the stage of the disease. Ovarian cancer is typically diagnosed in the late stage due to the fact that in the early phases is mostly asymptomatic. Genomic instability is one of the hallmarks of ovarian cancer. While ovarian cancer is stratified into different clinical subtypes, there still exists extensive genetic and progressive diversity within each subtype. Early detection of the disorder is one of the most important steps that facilitate a favorable prognosis and a good response to medical therapy for the patients. In targeted therapies, individual patients are treated by agents targeting the changes in tumor cells that help them grow, divide and spread. Currently, in gynecological malignancies, potential therapeutic targets include tumor-intrinsic signaling pathways, angiogenesis, homologous-recombination deficiency, hormone receptors, and immunologic factors. Ovarian cancer is ...
Ovarian cancer: Current status and strategies for improving therapeutic outcomes
Cancer Medicine
Ovarian cancer (OC) is the deadliest cancer among women placing it with 4th place for all the fatal disease among women. Cancer statistics from 2019 show that the estimated number of new cases is 22 240 with deaths around 14 170 cases. 1 There are three histological types associated with the disease. The most common is epithelial OC (EOC). Patients with this fatal disease have only 45.6% 5-year survival rate. 2 The survival rate in general increases up to 70% if effective early stage detection is possible. Early-stage detection rate for this disease is as low as 20%. For most of the patients the late
New Hypothesis on Pathogenesis of Ovarian Cancer Lead to Future Tailored Approaches
BioMed Research International, 2013
In the last decades, management of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) has been based on the staging system of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), and different classifications have been proposed for EOC that take account of grade of differentiation, histological subtype, and clinical features. However, despite taxonomic efforts, EOC appears to be not a unique disease; its subtypes differ for epidemiological and genetic risk factors, precursor lesions, patterns of spread, response to chemotherapy, and prognosis. Nevertheless, carboplatin plus paclitaxel combination represents the only standard treatment in adjuvant and advanced settings. This paper summarizes theories about the classification and origin of EOC and classical and new prognostic factors. It presents data about standard treatment and novel agents. We speculate about the possibility to create tailored therapy based on specific mutations in ovarian cancer and to personalize prevention.
Molecular Characterization of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2016
Epithelial ovarian cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease characterized by multiple histological subtypes. Molecular diversity has been shown to occur within specific histological subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer, between different tumors of an individual patient, as well as within individual tumors. Recent advances in the molecular characterization of epithelial ovarian cancer tumors have provided the basis for a simplified classification scheme in which these cancers are classified as either type I or type II tumors, and these two categories have implications regarding disease pathogenesis and prognosis. Molecular analyses, primarily based on next-generation sequencing, otherwise known as high-throughput sequencing, are allowing for further refinement of ovarian cancer classification, facilitating the elucidation of the site(s) of precursor lesions of high-grade serous ovarian cancer, and providing insight into the processes of clonal selection and evolution that may be associated with development of chemoresistance. Potential therapeutic targets have been identified from recent molecular profiling studies of these tumors, and the effectiveness and safety of a number of specific targeted therapies have been evaluated or are currently being studied for the treatment of women with this disease.
Ovarian Cancer: Opportunity for Targeted Therapy
Journal of Oncology, 2012
Ovarian cancer is a common cause of cancer mortality in women with limited treatment effectiveness in advanced stages. The limitation to treatment is largely the result of high rates of cancer recurrence despite chemotherapy and eventual resistance to existing chemotherapeutic agents. The objective of this paper is to review current concepts of ovarian carcinogenesis. We will review existing hypotheses of tumor origin from ovarian epithelial cells, Fallopian tube, and endometrium. We will also review the molecular pathogenesis of ovarian cancer which results in two specific pathways of carcinogenesis: (1) type I low-grade tumor and (2) type II high-grade tumor. Improved understanding of the molecular basis of ovarian carcinogenesis has opened new opportunities for targeted therapy. This paper will also review these potential therapeutic targets and will explore new agents that are currently being investigated.
International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer, 2012
ObjectiveTo review the current understanding of the underlying molecular, biologic, and genetic mechanisms involved in ovarian cancer development and how these mechanisms can be targets for prevention, detection, and treatment of the disease and its recurrence.MethodsIn May 2012, we convened a meeting of researchers, clinicians, and consumer advocates to review the state of current knowledge on molecular mechanisms and identify fruitful areas for further investigations.ResultsThe meeting consisted of 7 scientific sessions ranging from Epidemiology, Early Detection, and Biology to Therapeutics and Quality of Life. Sessions consisted of talks and panel discussions by international leaders in ovarian cancer research. A special career development session by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Academy as well as an oral abstract and poster session showcased promising new research by junior scientists.ConclusionsTechnological advances...
Molecular pathogenesis and therapeutic targets in epithelial ovarian cancer
Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, 2007
Ovarian cancer, the most aggressive gynecologic cancer, is the foremost cause of death from gynecologic malignancies in the developed world. Two primary reasons explain its aggressive behavior: most patients present with advanced disease at diagnosis, and die of recurrences from disease that has become resistant to conventional chemotherapies. In this paper on epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we will review molecular alterations associated with the few precursor lesions identified to date, followed by the more commonly recognized processes of de novo carcinogenesis, metastasis, and the development of chemoresistance. We will propose a unifying model of ovarian epithelial tumorigenesis that takes into account various hypotheses. We will also review novel approaches to overcome the major problem of chemoresistance in ovarian cancer. Finally, we will discuss advances and new challenges in the development of mouse model systems to investigate EOC precursor lesions, progression, metastasis, and chemoresistance.
Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers: Current Options and Future Promise
In recent years, as more effective, less toxic cancer drugs reach the patient population, the need for accurate and reliable cancer diagnostics and prognostics has become widely appreciated. Nowhere is this need more dire than in ovarian cancer, where the majority of women are diagnosed late in the course of disease progression. The ability to sensitively and specifically predict the presence of early disease, its status, stage, and associated therapeutic efficacy, has the potential to revolutionize ovarian cancer detection and treatment. Here, we review current ovarian cancer diagnostics and prognostics as well as potential ovarian cancer biomarkers that are being studied and validated. We also present some of the most recent molecular approaches being used to identify genes and proteins that may represent the next generation of ovarian cancer diagnostics and prognostics.