Ovarian Cancer Overview: Molecular Biology and Its Potential Clinical Application

Abstract

Over the previous two decades, there has been a shift in the ovarian cancer paradigm to consider it as a multiplicity of disease types rather than a single disease, requiring specialized medical management from molecular diagnosis through to treatment. Despite the achieved improvements in diagnosis, surgery, and systemic treatment, ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death from gynecological tumors in western countries. The study of ovarian cancer at a molecular level could reveal potential biomarkers of disease diagnosis and progression, as well as possible therapeutic targets in areas such as angiogenesis and homologous recombination deficiencies. Although this area of research is proving invaluable concerning newer therapeutic approaches, platinum-based chemotherapy continues to be the core of the first-line treatment. Genomic screening focusing on the identification of prognostic and predictive markers is considered one of the leading areas for future ovarian cancer research.