title: Genomic aberrations relate early and advanced stage ovarian cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Because of the distinct clinical presentation of early and advanced stage ovarian cancer, we aim to clarify whether these disease entities are solely separated by time of diagnosis or whether they arise from distinct molecular events.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen early and sixteen advanced stage ovarian carcinomas, matched for histological subtype and differentiation grade, were included. Genomic aberrations were compared for each early and advanced stage ovarian cancer by array comparative genomic hybridization. To study how the aberrations correlate to the clinical characteristics of the tumors we clustered tumors based on the genomic aberrations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The genomic aberration patterns in advanced stage cancer equalled those in early stage, but were more frequent in advanced stage (p = 0.012). Unsupervised clustering based on genomic aberrations yielded two clusters that significantly discriminated early from advanced stage (p = 0.001), and that did differ significantly in survival (p = 0.002). These clusters however did give a more accurate prognosis than histological subtype or differentiation grade.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that advanced stage ovarian cancer either progresses from early stage or from a common precursor lesion but that they do not arise from distinct carcinogenic molecular events. Furthermore, we show that array comparative genomic hybridization has the potential to identify clinically distinct patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynaecological Oncology, University Medical Center Utrecht, PO Box 85500, 3508 GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. a.zaal@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Afra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaal
authors.forename: Wouter J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Peyrot
authors.forename: P M J J
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Berns
authors.forename: Maria E L
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: van der Burg
authors.forename: Jan H W
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Veerbeek
authors.forename: J Baptist
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Trimbos
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cadron
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: van Diest
authors.forename: Wessel N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: van Wieringen
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krijgsman
authors.forename: Gerrit A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.forename: Jurgen M J
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Piek
authors.forename: Petra J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Timmers
authors.forename: Ignace
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vergote
authors.forename: René H M
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Verheijen
authors.forename: Bauke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ylstra
authors.forename: Ronald P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Zweemer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D018628:Gene Dosage / Q000235:genetics; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*