Tumour angiogenesis in epithelial ovarian cancers

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynaecological malignancy. It is frequently diagnosed late and shows poor prognosis with a 5 year survival rate of 30%. New blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) and new lymphatic vessel growth (lymphangiogenesis) are fundamental events in tumour growth and metastatic dissemination. Despite the existence of established clinical prognostic markers for EOC, there is still a lack of clinically reliable molecular markers for assessing prognosis. In addition, little is known about the molecular events underlying EOC formation and spread. The aim of the study was to identify additional prognostic parameters in EOC and potentially pre-malignant ovarian lesions and to understand the potential mechanisms of angiogenesis / lymphangiogenesis in EOC formation. Archival paraffin wax-embedded sections, frozen tissues, serum and fluid samples of pre-malignant ovarian lesions (endometriosis, benign cystadenomas and borderline tumours) and EOC were used to assess molecular changes in EOC and these ovarian lesions compared to normal ovaries. Techniques used included immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and real-time quantitative RT-PCR which were performed to analyse molecular markers ... (continues)