[Molecular biology of ovarian cancer]

It has been suggested that the accumulation in multiple steps of gene abnormality is related to the malignant transformation of the normal cell. Understanding such abnormalities would be useful in the establishment of effective measures for the early detection and treatment of cancers with poor prognoses. In gynecological malignancies, the prognosis for epithelial ovarian cancer is poor even though great numbers of patients are treated with multimodal therapy. Uncovering the genes associated with the epithelial ovarian cancer crisis could lead to the identification of high risk cases, and accurate screening could open the way to early detection. Among the genes searched to date for abnormalities related to ovarian cancer, BRCA1 is thought to be the most likely candidate for having a causal relation with the familial ovarian cancer syndrome.