Katharina Buczek
According to the CDC, ovarian cancer is the second most common form of gynecologic cancer in the U.S.
In 2019, approximately two hundred and thirty-three thousand American women were living with the cancer. And in 2022, the National Cancer Institute estimates that about twenty thousand more cases will be diagnosed.
When ovarian cancer remains localized, the five-year relative survival rate of women in the U.S. is ninety-three percent.
However, once the cancer spreads regionally, this survival rate drops to seventy-five percent. And sadly, if the cancer is able to spread distantly, the survival rate is a mere thirty-one percent.
In turn, Dr. Arun Everest-Dass, a research scientist from Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics in Australia, has conducted a study aimed at understanding and stopping ovarian cancer cells’ metastatic cascade. In other words, the spread of cancer from the primary tumor to distant regions of the body.
“During this metastatic cascade, tumor cells undergo changes to their state and behavior– a phenomenon referred to as cell plasticity,” said Dr. Everest-Dass.
So, she and her team employed an advanced imaging technique to analyze the signaling pathways that promote the spread of cancer. And amazingly, Dr. Everest-Dass discovered unique sugars on the surface of ovarian cancer cells known as “glycolipids.”
These glycolipids represent a breakthrough in the understanding of the spread of ovarian cancer. And now, Professor Mark von Itzstein– the study’s co-author– believes they are the perfect target for new therapeutic treatments.
“Identifying the changes in the carbohydrate language in ovarian cancer cells provides us the real opportunity of identifying not yet explored drug discovery targets,” she explained.
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