open access - PLoS ONE: Identification of a Potential Ovarian Cancer Stem Cell Gene Expression Profile from Advanced Stage Papillary Serous Ovarian Cancer

"...We propose the side population of ascites from women with high-grade advanced stage papillary serous ovarian adenocarcinoma would be enriched for cancer stem-like cells, and would express a gene signature trend for “stemness” in ovarian cancer stem-like cells...."

"Ethics Statement
Fresh ascites was obtained from 10 women with high-grade advanced stage ovarian adenocarcinoma at the time of primary cytoreductive surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA......

".....In summary, an expression profile for SP enriched for cancer stem-like cells from ascites of ovarian cancer patients is reported. The nature of the “stemness” of the SP gene signature was demonstrated by the identification of several stem cell-related genes including an activated Notch signaling pathway. The results were biologically validated using identified SP population from human ovarian cancer cell lines. The SP gene list generated from ovarian cancer patients was also found to be enriched in recurrent tumors from ovarian cancer patients. These results have important implications concerning the tumor recurrence and potential therapeutic approach. The SP cells showed a dose dependent sensitivity towards Notch pathway inhibitor, suggests the Notch signaling pathway may be an important therapeutic target in ovarian cancer."