[Epithelial ovarian cancer - a change of paradigm]

Epithelial ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate within gynecological cancers as early symptoms are vague and unspecific and two-thirds of patients are presenting with advanced stage disease. Due to the innovative findings of proteo-genomic studies during the last decade a change in paradigm has occurred. Ovarian cancer, which so far was assumed to be one disease deriving from a single layer of ovarian surface epithelial cells, has now become known to be heterogeneous and genetically distinct from each other, possibly even deriving from different parts of the female genital system. Our continuously increasing knowledge has made us aware that diagnosis and therapy has to target the molecular pathway more than the organ of origin. This will impact on ovarian cancer and will make it more and more controllable during the next ten years.