Abstract
As for many other cancers, metastasis is the leading cause of death of patients with ovarian cancer. Vigorous basic and clinical research is being performed to initiate more efficacious treatment strategies to improve the poor outcome of women with this cancer. Current treatment for ovarian cancer includes advanced cyto-reductive surgery and traditional platinum and taxane combined chemotherapy. Clinical trials using novel cytotoxic reagents and tyrosine kinase inhibitors have also been progressing. In parallel, the application of robust unbiased high throughput research platforms using transcriptomic and proteomic approaches has identified that not only individual cell signalling pathways, but a network of molecular pathways, play an important role in the biology of ovarian cancer. Furthermore, intensive genomic and epigenetic analyses have also revealed single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with risk and/or aetiology of this cancer including patient response to treatment. Taken together, these approaches, that are advancing our understanding, will have an impact on the generation of new therapeutic approaches and strategies for improving the outcome and quality of life of patients with ovarian cancer in the near future.
Highlights
Malignant tumors have become a severe burden on the health system of numerous countries, with treatment resistant metastasis, the leading cause of death of patients including women with ovarian cancer [1,2]
Current cancer research has revealed that the response of tumor cells to certain treatments varies in individuals as their molecular phenotypes and tumor microenvironments differ [4,5]
Genome Wide Approaches (GWAS) included that conducted by the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) consortium have identified 14 independent risk loci for ovarian cancer imparting low- moderate risk
Summary
Malignant tumors have become a severe burden on the health system of numerous countries, with treatment resistant metastasis, the leading cause of death of patients including women with ovarian cancer [1,2]. Most women respond to the chemo-treatment initially but the tumor will become resistant eventually leading to relapse; and this recurrent and chemoresistant disease is the main cause of patient deaths. Current cancer research has revealed that the response of tumor cells to certain treatments varies in individuals as their molecular phenotypes and tumor microenvironments differ [4,5]. For this reason, numerous in vitro cell culture platforms have been established and utilised in preclinical studies to better mimic the tumor microenvironment seen in patients [6]. We wish to summarise the current understanding, novel therapeutic agents and approaches to ovarian cancer treatment, to lay a foundation for our further research leading to new treatment for this disease
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