PLoS Medicine - Ovarian Cancer: A Clinical Challenge That Needs Some Basic Answers

PLoS Medicine - Ovarian Cancer: A Clinical Challenge That Needs Some Basic Answers

From a clinical perspective, epithelial ovarian cancer is something of an enigma. Despite improvements in aggressive debulking surgery and the initial good response of patients to platinum-based chemotherapies, there has been little improvement in the survival rates for over three decades..... About 65% of women with epithelial ovarian cancer will die within five years of their diagnosis [1].

Unfortunately, there are no effective biomarkers that can identify early-stage disease and no reliable prognostic markers for predicting clinical response and guiding treatment regimes. Furthermore, there remains intense debate about the cellular origins, precursor lesions, and histological classification of the disease. With so many unknowns, it is perhaps not surprising that progress in reducing mortality in women diagnosed with ovarian cancer has been so limited.