title: Reliable in vitro studies require appropriate ovarian cancer cell lines.
abstract: Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in women and the leading cause of death from gynaecological malignancies. Of the 75% women diagnosed with locally advanced or disseminated disease, only 30% will survive five years following treatment. This poor prognosis is due to the following reasons: limited understanding of the tumor origin, unclear initiating events and early developmental stages of ovarian cancer, lack of reliable ovarian cancer-specific biomarkers, and drug resistance in advanced cases. In the past, in vitro studies using cell line models have been an invaluable tool for basic, discovery-driven cancer research. However, numerous issues including misidentification and cross-contamination of cell lines have hindered research efforts. In this study we examined all ovarian cancer cell lines available from cell banks. Hereby, we identified inconsistencies in the reporting, difficulties in the identification of cell origin or clinical data of the donor patients, restricted ethnic and histological type representation, and a lack of tubal and peritoneal cancer cell lines. We recommend that all cell lines should be distributed via official cell banks only with strict guidelines regarding the minimal available information required to improve the quality of ovarian cancer research in future.
authors.affiliation: Ovarian Cancer Group, Adult Cancer Program, Lowy Cancer Centre, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ; Department of Biomedicine, Gynecological Research Group, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.affiliation: Ovarian Cancer Group, Adult Cancer Program, Lowy Cancer Centre, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Sheri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nixdorf
authors.affiliation: Gynaecological Cancer Centre, Royal Hospital for Women, School of Women's and Children's Health, Randwick, Australia.
authors.forename: Neville F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Hacker
authors.affiliation: Ovarian Cancer Group, Adult Cancer Program, Lowy Cancer Centre, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ; Department of Biomedicine, Gynecological Research Group, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland ; Gynaecological Cancer Centre, Royal Hospital for Women, School of Women's and Children's Health, Randwick, Australia.
authors.forename: Viola A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Heinzelmann-Schwarz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Epithelial ovarian cancer; Immortalization; Peritoneal cancer; Primary cultures; Tubal cancer