THE EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC GENES IN OVARIAN CANCER

Abstract

Aim: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy and frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage because of the inadequate number of biomarkers. Therefore, identification of OC specific biological markers is a vital step for diagnosis and treatment response. Our goal is to examine functional gene sets which are possibly markers for ovarian cancer and their expression profiles in OC patients. We also aim to determine the potential genes for therapeutic targets for OC patients. Method: The expression levels of seven genes (FOS, FOSL2, JUN, MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-2, and VEGFA) were identified by qRT-PCR. The tumor-free control group consisted of total abdominal hysterectomy (n=1) and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (n=9) patients who underwent gynecologic procedures. High-grade serous OC epithelial samples (n=10) were used for the experiment group. Results and Conclusions: According to the qRT-PCR data, there is an increased expression of FOS (p=0.0089), MMP-9 (p=0.0029), VEGFA (p=0.0434) and decreased expression of FOSL2 (p=0.0271), JUN (p=0.0041), TIMP-2 (p=0.0062). In conclusion, the results can indicate the new perspective for OC pathogenesis and treatment. For future studies, these genes can be used in personalized diagnosis and therapy of OC.