Expression profiles of genes involved in poor prognosis of epithelial ovarian carcinoma: a review.
BACKGROUND
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the commonest cause of gynecological cancer-related mortality. Although the prognosis for patients with advanced cancer is poor, there is a wide range of outcomes for individual patients.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to review molecular factors predictive of poor prognosis of women with EOC by reviewing microarray research identifying gene expression profiles.


METHODS
A systematic search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed and ScienceDirect up to July 2008, combining the keywords "genome-wide," "microarray," "epithelial ovarian cancer" "prognosis," and "epithelial-mesenchymal transition" with specific expression profiles of genes.


RESULTS
Many genes that participated in cell signaling, growth factors, transcription factors, proteinases, metabolism, cell adhesion, extracellular matrix component, cell proliferation, and anti-apoptosis were overexpressed in patients with poor prognosis. Several important prognosis-related genes overlap with those known to be regulated by epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This signaling pathway of EMT (E-cadherin, beta-catenin, receptor tyrosine kinases, NF-kappaB, TGF-beta, or Wnt signalings) will be discussed, as it provides new insights into a new treatment strategy.


CONCLUSIONS
This review summarizes recent advances in prognosis-related molecular biology. Collectively, molecular changes possibly through EMT are considered to be a major contributor to the poor prognosis of EOC.
Yoshida
Shozo
S
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nara Medical University, 840 Shijo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
Furukawa
Naoto
N
Haruta
Shoji
S
Tanase
Yasuhito
Y
Kanayama
Seiji
S
Noguchi
Taketoshi
T
Sakata
Mariko
M
Yamada
Yoshihiko
Y
Oi
Hidekazu
H
Kobayashi
Hiroshi
H
D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis