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Biochemical composition of malignant ascites determines high aggressiveness of undifferentiated ovarian tumors

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Abstract

Although undifferentiated tumors are the most lethal among all ovarian cancer histotypes, the exact reasons for this situation are unclear. This report was aimed at investigating whether the high aggressiveness of undifferentiated ovarian cancer may be associated with a biochemical composition of malignant ascites accumulating in the peritoneal cavity. We analyzed ascites from patients with undifferentiated, high-grade serous, endometrioid and clear-cell ovarian cancers, and from non-cancerous patients with respect to a group of soluble agents involved in cancer cell progression. Moreover, the effect of these fluids on proliferation and migration of ovarian cancer cells (A2780, OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3) was evaluated. The study showed that the level of all tested proteins in malignant ascites was higher than in the benign fluids. Concentration of 9/11 agents (CCL2, CXCL1, CXCL5, CXCL8, CXCL12, HGF, PAI-1, TGF-β1 and VEGF) was the greatest in the fluids from undifferentiated cancer, while the level of remaining 2 (IL-6 and uPA) was the highest in ascites from serous carcinoma. Proliferation of cancer cells was the most effective when they were subjected to ascites from patients with undifferentiated and serous cancer, whereas the migration was the highest in the case of undifferentiated tumors. Our findings indicate that the aggressiveness of undifferentiated ovarian tumors may be associated with the composition of malignant ascites, in particular the concentration of specific proinflammatory, cancer-promoting agents.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre, Poland (registration number 2014/15/B/NZ3/00421).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hypertensiology, Angiology and Internal Medicine, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Długa 1/2 Str, 61-848, Poznan, Poland

    Justyna Mikuła-Pietrasik, Paweł Uruski, Andrzej Tykarski & Krzysztof Książek

  2. Division of Gynecological Surgery, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Polna 33 Str, 60-535, Poznan, Poland

    Sebastian Szubert, Rafał Moszyński, Dariusz Szpurek & Stefan Sajdak

Authors
  1. Justyna Mikuła-Pietrasik
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  2. Paweł Uruski
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  3. Sebastian Szubert
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  4. Rafał Moszyński
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  5. Dariusz Szpurek
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  6. Stefan Sajdak
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  7. Andrzej Tykarski
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  8. Krzysztof Książek
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Correspondence to Krzysztof Książek.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mikuła-Pietrasik, J., Uruski, P., Szubert, S. et al. Biochemical composition of malignant ascites determines high aggressiveness of undifferentiated ovarian tumors. Med Oncol 33, 94 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-016-0810-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-016-0810-4

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