title: Treatment of ovarian cancer ascites by intra-peritoneal injection of diphtheria toxin A chain-H19 vector: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ovarian cancer ascitic fluid, which contains malignant cells, is usually present in women with an advanced stage disease. There are currently no effective therapies for the treatment of ovarian cancer ascitic fluid. We developed a new therapeutic strategy to target expression of the diphtheria toxin fragment A gene in ovarian tumor cells under the control of H19 regulatory sequences.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 64-year-old Caucasian woman was diagnosed with a stage IIIc epithelial ovarian cancer. She suffered from progressive disease, accumulation of malignant ascites that needed to be drained weekly, abdominal pain, vomiting, anorexia and severe weakness. Infusion of the diphtheria toxin A chain-H19 plasmid into the peritoneum of our patient resulted in complete resolution of the ascites with minimum adverse events.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On the basis of this preliminary experience, we are currently conducting an extensive Phase I study on a larger number of patients in order to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of this novel patient-oriented treatment approach.
authors.affiliation: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Biological Chemistry, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel. amizrah25@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mizrahi
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Czerniak
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ohana
authors.forename: Smadar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amiur
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallula
authors.forename: Imad
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Matouk
authors.forename: Rasha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abu-Lail
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Birman
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hochberg
authors.forename: Tally
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Levy