Molecular Pathology and Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2025) | Viewed by 1917
Special Issue Editor
Interests: cancer prevention; molecular biology; drug repurposing; health technology assessment; pharmacoeconomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Ovarian cancer is a sneaky disease. The most common form, “high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma” (HGSOC), accounts for almost 70% of all diagnoses. Unfortunately, it represents the most aggressive and lethal form, often resistant to chemotherapy drugs, mainly because it is diagnosed at an advanced stage. In fact, ovarian cancer often presents with very generic symptoms that delay diagnosis. Even when the symptoms act as an alarm bell, ovarian cancer is already at a relatively advanced stage. It is estimated that less than 20% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, but when this happens, about 90% reach five-year survival from diagnosis. As far as we know, standard gynecological check-ups are not useful for the early identification of ovarian cancer, as are transvaginal ultrasounds, which also identify already advanced tumors, or even the measurement of the CA-125 marker, an imperfect test that gives many false positives and is therefore not useful as a screening test to be proposed to all women, regardless of their individual risk level. Moreover, the search for blood biological markers for early diagnosis has not yet yielded appreciable results, and the available tests are not sufficiently reliable. Furthermore, ovarian cancers are characterized by a great variability of genetic mutations (even affecting the well-known BRCA gene), which makes it difficult to identify the most effective targets for a targeted therapy. Surgery still plays a major role in the treatment of ovarian cancer, and in the early stages, it is curative in about 70% of cases. However, even in early-stage cancer, chemotherapy is prescribed after surgery, given the 25–30% risk of disease recurrence. From a pharmacological point of view, platinum-based chemotherapy, taxol, and derivatives are still the mainstay of treatment today. However, important innovations have emerged from research. Several innovative therapies have recently been developed and tested, including new combinations of chemotherapeutics, new times and methods of administration, and not least the immunotherapy approach. The difficulty in identifying effective early detection and screening tools and innovative therapeutic approaches to reduce ovarian cancer-related mortality suggests the topic of this Special Issue. Thus, studies and research that are actually focusing on: (i) the identification of new biomarkers that can be used in a possible screening; (ii) early diagnosis techniques; and (iii) new therapeutic approaches are welcome.
Dr. Laura Paleari
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- ovarian cancer
- screening
- early diagnosis
- predictive/prognostic markers
- innovative therapy
- molecular pathology
- precision medicine
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