Vol 65, No 4 (2006)
Review article
Published online: 2006-09-18
Prediction of the response to chemotherapy in ovarian cancers
Folia Morphol 2006;65(4):285-294.
Abstract
Ovarian cancer represents the fifth most frequent cause of death as a result of
malignant processes after cancers of the breast, large intestine, lung and stomach.
Owing to the localisation of ovarian cancer, approximately 75% of cases
are diagnosed at the III and IV stages of advancement according to FIGO. Because
of the advanced stage of the disease surgery has to be followed by chemotherapy
in most cases of ovarian cancer and therefore resistance to cytostatic
drugs represents a major clinical problem. The potential to predict the response
to therapy with the use of cytostatic drugs would enable the most effective
drugs to be applied in individual cases, thus improving the efficiency of the
treatment and restricting the development of resistance to cytostatic drugs. In
the present paper the progress made so far in the prediction of the clinical
course of ovarian cancer is reviewed. The significance of the expression of the
ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters is described, including P-glycoprotein
and MRP2, the principal representatives of the protein group. The importance
of disturbed control of apoptosis and the overexpression of HER-2 and topoisomerase
1A are also discussed. Two sections are devoted to the most recent
studies in the biology of ovarian cancer, pangenomic studies on gene expression
using DNA microarrays and aberrations of DNA methylation.
Keywords: ovarian cancerchemotherapypredictionmultidrug resistance