Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
8
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-9-3
pubmed:abstractText
Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease with respect to histopathology, molecular biology, and clinical outcome. In advanced stages, surgery and chemotherapy result in an approximately 25% overall 5-year survival rate, pointing to a strong need to identify subgroups of patients that may benefit from targeted innovative molecular therapy. This review summarizes: (a) microarray research identifying gene-expression profiles in ovarian cancer; (b) the methodological flaws in the available microarray studies; and (c) applications of pathway analysis to define new molecular subgroups. Microarray technology now permits the analysis of expression levels of thousands of genes. So far seven studies have aimed to identify a genetic profile that can predict survival/clinical outcome and/or response to platinum-based therapy. To date, the clinical evidence of prognostic microarray studies has only reached the level of small retrospective studies, and there are other issues that may explain the nonreproducibility among the reported prognostic profiles, such as overfitting, technical platform differences, and accuracy of measurements. We consider pathway analysis a promising new strategy. The accumulation of small differential expressions within a meaningful molecular regulatory network might lead to a critical threshold level, resulting in ovarian cancer. Microarray technologies have already provided valuable expression data for classifying ovarian cancer and the first clues about which molecular changes in ovarian cancer could be exploited in new treatment strategies. Further improvements in technology as well as in study design, combined with pathway analysis, will allow us to detect even more subtle tumor expression differences among subgroups of ovarian cancer patients. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Aug
pubmed:issn
1083-7159
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
12
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
960-6
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
Profiling studies in ovarian cancer: a review.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Medical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Review, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't