The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology
ReviewMicroRNAs in ovarian cancer biology and therapy resistance
Section snippets
Ovarian cancer
Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most important cause of death from gynecological cancers in the Western world (Parkin et al., 2005). Stage of the disease, histological and molecular cell-biological characteristics have been shown to associate with prognosis or therapy outcome. For example, 20% of ovarian cancers are limited to the ovaries at time of diagnosis (stage 1) and up to 90% of these patients can be cured using currently available therapies (Berek, 2005, Bast et al., 2009). However,
miRNAs and ovarian cancer
The first study suggested that miRNAs also fulfill an important role in ovarian cancer was published in 2006 and showed that approximately 40% of the miRNA genes exhibit altered DNA copy numbers (Zhang et al., 2006). Later on, high expression levels of Dicer, Drosha and eIF6, proteins involved in miRNA maturation (Fig. 1), were shown to be associated with a favorable prognosis of ovarian cancer patients (Flavin et al., 2008, Merritt et al., 2008).
Several studies have reported miRNAs that are
miRNAs and response to chemotherapy
Ovarian cancer is most frequently treated with platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy. Although initial treatment is successful for 80–90% of the patients, most responders eventually become resistant to a wide range of chemotherapeutic agents. Prediction of those patients that respond to a distinct therapy would help to optimize tailored treatment. Therefore, people have searched for miRNAs that associate with chemosensitivity. These miRNAs might be used as biomarkers but could act as
Towards a miRNA-based therapy
Although it is still a relatively new field, the miRNA studies summarized in this review indicate that miRNAs could play an important role in ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Since early detection tools are lacking, ovarian cancer is often diagnosed in a late stage which is one of the reasons why ovarian cancer has a high mortality rate. The studies discussed here demonstrate that miRNA expression profiles are different in ovarian cancer compared to normal control tissue, and it might
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from the Dutch Cancer Society, EMCR 2007-3794.
We thank Hans Kneevel and Jean Helmijr for their help in preparing the figures.
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