open access: Feb 13th - PLoS ONE: Angiogenic mRNA and microRNA Gene Expression Signature Predicts a Novel Subtype of Serous Ovarian Cancer

"Advanced epithelial ovarian cancer is notable for initial sensitivity to platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy [1], [2], but the vast majority of women will develop recurrent ovarian cancer within 12 to 24 months and will eventually die from increasingly platinum- and chemotherapy-resistant disease. One possible reason that ovarian cancer remains refractory to therapy is that there are distinct molecular subtypes, which different cellular properties, each of which may require different therapeutic approaches to effectively treat the disease."

"Our goal was to identify robust molecular subtypes of high-grade serous ovarian cancer and sets of functionally defined classification genes that might give insight into potential therapies."

"In the analysis presented here, we focused on a single histological type—high-grade serous ovarian cancer. We chose this because it is by far the most common histologic subtype of ovarian cancer and the one that is most responsive to chemotherapy. Moreover the vast majority of published gene expression data, including that from the TCGA, is from patients with high-grade serious cancer. Although there are other recognized ovarian histological subtypes, including mucinous, clear cell and endometrioid cancers, we did not have sufficient numbers of these to search for subtypes or to robustly validate their existence in independent datasets."