Molecular markers in epithelial ovarian cancer : paving the way to innovative therapies

Dit document is (ook) beschikbaar voor ruilverkeer - alleen door bibliotheken -. [Bestelformulier]

Over the past decades, the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer paitents has substantially improved owing to more effective surgery and the refinement of first line chemotherapy regiments, namely the introduction of platinum-based chemotherapy in the 1980s and the addition of taxanes in the 1990s. Still, approximately 60% of patients will die of drug-resistant disease within five years of diagnosis. Clinical trials evaluating further combinations or sequences of "classic" chemotherapeutic drugs are likely to produce only marginal gains in disease outcome. To overcome or circumvent chemoresistant disease, combined modality treatment with conventional chemotherapeutics and drugs directed against spefific molecular targets is almost certainly required. Given the remarkable heterogeneity of ovarian cancer, both at the clinical and the molecular level, a main challenge is to identify prognostic and predictive factors which will aid in selecting those patients that are most likely to benefit from particular (targeted) therapies. In addition, the discovery of genes and pathways that influence disease outcome may reveal novel therapeutic targets.
In this thesis, molecular markers associated with response to chemotherapy and prognosis of eptihtelial ovarian cancer patients were investigated.

Meer informatie in de catalogus
Meer informatie in Picarta