Health News - Role of a known cancer gene in ovarian cancer investigated - MYC proteins - Australia

Blogger's Note: MYC is common to a number of cancers/genetic syndromes

“High-grade serous ovarian cancers are aggressive, difficult-to-treat cancers that often have a poor prognosis,” Associate Professor Scott said. “The cancers are typically not diagnosed until after they have spread, and are often resistant to chemotherapy drugs. It is imperative that we improve our understanding of how ovarian cancers develop so we can identify molecular or cellular targets for new therapeutic agents.”

Changes in the levels of MYC-family proteins have been identified as a potential cause of at least 15-20 per cent of high-grade serous ovarian cancers, and are associated with poor clinical outcomes."

"Dr Rutkowski said that the research team would develop pre-clinical models of ovarian cancer with high levels of MYC-family proteins, and abnormal p53 signaling, to determine whether the MYC gene family is involved in the development and chemotherapy-resistance of these cancers."