Abstract. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of death in women with gynecological malignancies. Among EOC, clear cell carcinoma (CCC) and endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC) differ from the other histological types with respect to their clinical characteristics and carcinogenesis. Both tumor types are often associated with endometriosis. EAC is recently reported to be characterized by K-RAS activation and PTEN dysfunction. However, the molecular changes in CCC remain largely unknown. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in CCC tumorigenesis. The present article reviews the English language literature for biological, pathogenetic and pathophysiological studies on endometriosis-associated CCC of the ovary. Several recent studies of loss of heterozygosity (LOH), allelic loss, comparative genomic hybridization, mutation, methylation status, microarray gene-expression profiling and proteomics are discussed in the context of CCC biology. Retrograde menstruation or ovarian hemorrhage carries highly prooxidant factors, such as heme and iron, into the peritoneal cavity or ovarian endometrioma. A histologically normal ectopic endometrium bears genetic damages caused by irondependent oxidative stress. DNA damage or LOH caused by oxidative stress is a critical factor in the carcinogenic process. LOH studies have implicated the involvement of specific chromosomal regions (5q, 6q, 9p, 10q, 11q, 17q and 22q). Furthermore, the PTEN and APC (early event), p53, polo-like kinases, Emi1 and K-RAS (late event) genes may be involved in CCC carcinogenesis. The molecular pathology of CCC is heterogeneous and involves various putative precursor lesions and multiple pathways of development, possibly via genetic alteration by oxidative stress. the candidate tumor suppressor genes 7. Microsatellite instability in CCC 8. Genes specifically up-regulated in CCC 9. Clear cell adenofibroma-CCC sequence 10. Iron, oxidative stress and carcinogenesis 11. Conclusions
IntroductionEpithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of death in women with gynecological malignancies worldwide. The majority of patients present with stage III and IV disease, for which the 5-year survival rates are less than 20%. Most of the patients with EOC present with advanced disease that is not cured by surgery. Ninety per cent of EOC are derived from epithelium within inclusion cysts or from the ovarian surface epithelium and these neoplasms are classified into serous, mucinous, endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC), clear cell carcinoma (CCC) and other types (1).Molecular genetic alterations play a key role in carcinogenesis (1). High-grade serous carcinoma arises in a de novo fashion and is characterized by p53 mutations and BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 dysfunction. In contrast, low-grade serous carcinomas are characterized by activation of the RAS-RAF signaling pathway secondary to mutations in KRAS and BRAF in an adenoma-borderline tumor-carcinoma sequence. Similarly, mucinous carcinomas have also ...