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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Differences in the subtypes of ovarian cancer may mean patients need different types of medical care to treat the disease.
New research from Vancouver General Hospital finds there are big differences between ovarian cancer subtypes which should be reflected in patient management.
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Researchers measured expression levels of 21 proteins in 500 ovarian cancer samples in British Columbia, Canada. They looked at associations between biomarker expression and survival for all cancers grouped together. And they studied the five major ovarian cancer subtypes separately -- high-grade serous, low-grade serous, clear cell, endometrioid, and mucinous carcinomas.
Results show biomarker expression was stable across disease stages within a given subtype but the associations between specific biomarkers and disease outcome were significantly different between subtypes. Because of these findings, researchers propose their study offers persuasive evidence supporting the view that ovarian carcinoma subtypes are different diseases.
Ovarian cancer is not the most common gynecologic cancer in women but the disease causes a lot of deaths partly because its symptoms are nonspecific and it is not usually found until its in its later stages.
SOURCE: PLoS Medicine published online December 1, 2008
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