Emerging concepts in epithelial ovarian cancer: highlights of the 4th Canadian conference on ovarian cancer research.

摘要

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal of the gynecological cancers and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in Canadian women. The mortality rate of EOC, expressed as the ratio of deaths to newly diagnosed cases, is estimated at 70%, a statistic that has not improved significantly over the past 20 years. While early-stage disease can be cured with surgical approaches, the lack of early diagnostic markers combined with the diffuse and easily overlooked symptoms of early-stage disease lead most patients to present with metastatic disease. Unfortunately, while most metastatic ovarian cancers initially respond to taxol and platinum-based chemotherapy, the disease almost inevitably recurs in a resistant form. Thus, there is a tremendous effort in identifying molecular markers and novel therapeutic targets for diagnosing and managing EOC. EOC includes four major histological subtypes (serous, endometrioid, clear cell and mucinous) which resemble the epithelia of the fallopian tube, uterine endometrium and endocervix. Recent and emerging studies indicate that epithelial ovarian cancer is not a single disease but rather a complex collection of cancers with differing etiologies, risk factors, and altered molecular signaling pathways.