Project 172026

Mortality rate from epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is higher than that of any other cancer among women in the North America, with staggering 63%. Currently, 75% of new cases are not diagnosed until the disease is in its late stages of development, when treatment is less effective, resulting in low survival rates. Despite this high death rate, ovarian cancer is treatable, and has a survival rate of 90% when detected early. Unfortunately, early diagnosis is difficult because of the physically inaccessible location of the ovaries, the lack of specific symptoms in early stages of disease, and the limited understanding of ovarian oncogenesis The overall goal of our research is to identify molecular pathways responsible for initiation or progression of EOC based on which clinicians will be able to implement individualized molecular diagnosis and treatment of this disease. The goal of this proposal is to validate subset of the identified putative biomarkers as indicators of disease onset, progression or treatment response.