Genomic Applications in Ovarian Cancer
- Abstract:
- Overall survival rates for women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (ovarian carcinoma) have remained unchanged over the past three decades, and fewer than 40% of patients remain alive at 5 years after diagnosis. High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) accounts for the majority of these cases. Mortality for HGSOC has not been altered by the use of complex cytotoxic chemotherapy combinations, and the lack of progress in improving outcomes reflects its unique biology and extreme genomic complexity. Here, we review key approaches to diagnosis and stratification of HGSOC that are now needed to advance treatment options for patients. The most important clinical questions for the pathologist remain how to unequivocally classify the different histotypes of ovarian carcinoma and which additional genomic data may identify individuals with high risk of response or relapse. This section will concentrate on recent molecular insights that are likely to be highly relevant to clinical care over the next 5 years.