The Open Clinical Cancer Journal

2008, 2 : 7-12
Published online 2008 February 6. DOI: 10.2174/1874189400802010007
Publisher ID: TOCCJ-2-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE
 Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: The Role of Cell Cycle Genes in the Different Histotypes

Giuseppina D’Andrilli2 , Antonio Giordano2,3 and Alessandro Bovicelli, *,1,2
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sant’Orsola Hospital, University of Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy
2Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Dept. of Biology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
3Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, University of Siena, Siena, Italy

*Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sant’Orsola Hospital, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 13, 40138 Bologna, Italy; Tel: 051-399520; Fax: 051-304751; E-mail: alessandrobovicelli@yahoo.it

ABSTRACT

Cancer is frequently considered to be a disease of the cell cycle; alterations in different families of cell cycle regulators cooperate in tumor development. Molecular analysis of human tumors has shown that cell cycle regulators are frequently mutated in human neoplasms, which underscores how important the maintenance of cell cycle commitment is in the prevention of human cancer. The regulatory pathways controlling cell cycle phases include several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes which display a range of abnormalities with potential usefulness as markers of evolution or treatment response in epithelial ovarian cancer. This review summarizes the current knowledge about these aberrations in malignant tumors of the ovary. We sought to focus our attention on the genes involved in the development of tumors arising from the ovarian epithelium, which are the most common types of ovarian malignancies.

Keywords:

Cell cycle deregulation, ovarian malignancy, cancer therapy, ovarian carcinoma histotypes..