The molecular biology of epithelial ovarian cancer.

The molecular biology of epithelial ovarian cancer. Bull Cancer. 2012 Dec 14; Authors: Leary A, Pautier P, Tazi Y, Morice P, Duvillard P, Gouy S, Uzan C, Gauthier H, Balleyguier C, Lhommé C Abstract Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently presents at an advanced stage where the cornerstone of management remains surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy. Unfortunately, despite sometimes dramatic initial responses, advanced ovarian cancer almost invariably relapses. Little progress has been made in the identification of effective targeted-therapies for ovarian cancer. The majority of clinical trials investigating novel agents have been negative and the only approved targeted-therapy is bevacizumab, for which reliable predictive biomarkers still elude us. Ovarian cancer is treated as a uniform disease. Yet, biological studies have highlighted the heterogeneity of this malignancy with marked differences in histology, oncogenesis, prognosis, chemo-responsiveness, and molecular profile. Recent high throughput molecular analyses have identified a huge number of genomic/phenotypic alterations. Broadly speaking, high grade serous carcinomas (type II) display significant genomic instability and numerous amplifications and losses; low grade (type I) tumors are genomically stable but display frequent mutations. Importantly, many of these genomic alterations relate to known oncogenes for which targeted-therapies are available or in development. There is toda...
Source: Bulletin du Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Bull Cancer Source Type: research