Ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women as a result of late diagnosis. For survival rates to improve, more sensitive and specific methods for earlier detection of ovarian cancer are needed. This study presents the development of rapid and specific one-step circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection using flow cytometry in a whole-blood sample with fluorescent ...

Objective: Ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose early and many patients present with advanced disease. The presence of exfoliated ovarian cancer cells in the peritoneal cavity after debulking surgery is a poor prognostic indicator. Sterilization of the peritoneum during surgery may have clinical benefit in reducing tumor burden. Several studies have evaluated osmotic cytotoxicity in gastroin...

BACKGROUND Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), commonly used in building materials, electronics, plastics, polyurethane foams, and textiles, are health hazards found in the environment. OBJECTIVE In this study we investigated the effects of PBDE-209, a deca-PBDE, on the regulation of growth and apoptosis of breast, ovarian, and cervical cancer cells as well as the underlying protein alter...

Human trophoblastic cell-surface marker, tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (TROP2), is a newly identified marker that has a vital role in the proliferation and invasion of various tumors. However, its specific function in ovarian cancer has not been researched. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of TROP2 in the formation of ovarian cancer and its possible me...

BACKGROUND Autophagy is a conserved cellular self-digestion mechanism that can either suppress or promote cancer in a context-dependent manner. In ovarian cancer, prevalent mono-allelic deletion of BECN1 (a canonical autophagy-inducer) suggests that autophagy is impaired to promote carcinogenesis and that Beclin-1 is a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor. Nonetheless, autophagy is known to be re...

PURPOSE There is growing evidence that stress and other behavioral factors may affect cancer progression and patient survival. The underlying mechanisms for this association are poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of stress-associated hormones norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol on the invasive potential of ovarian cancer cells. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN T...

Although natural killer (NK) cells are well known for their ability to kill tumors, few studies have addressed the interactions between resting (nonactivated) NK cells and freshly isolated human tumors. Here, we show that human leukocyte antigen class I(low) tumor cells isolated directly from patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma trigger degranulation by resting allogeneic NK cells. This was...

Ovarian cancer is responsible for the majority of gynecologic cancer deaths. Despite improvements in surgical approaches and the refinement of first-line cytotoxic combinations, the majority of patients diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer eventually succumb to tumor recurrence. Thus, novel therapeutic approaches are desperately needed for this disease. With the growing recognition of t...

The overexpression and amplification of HER-2 gene is associated with the malignant biological behavior of ovarian carcinoma and these tumor cells expressing elevated levels of HER-2 appear to be resistant to the cytolysis of NK-92. In this study, we analyzed the cytolysis effects of NK-92 on human ovarian carcinoma cells (SK-OV-3) after inhibition the expression of HER-2 mRNA by siRNA. Human o...