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Ovarian Cancer Chemoresistance

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

  • 33 Accesses

Definition

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancy in the western world. Worldwide there are more than 225,000 new cases of ovarian cancer each year, accounting for around 4 % of all cancers diagnosed in women. Ovarian cancer has remained the most challenging of all the gynecological malignancies for two reasons. First, early-stage ovarian cancer, which has a good prognosis, cannot be detected easily. Second, standard chemotherapy approaches such as paclitaxel and carboplatin often fail, and patients develop recurrent chemoresistant disease. Chemoresistance is a therapeutic problem that severely limits successful treatment outcomes for many human cancers. This is particularly true of ovarian cancer, where the development of resistance is a common occurrence.

Characteristics

Symptoms and Treatment of Ovarian Cancer

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are nonspecific and often occur when the disease is already spread throughout the abdominal cavity....

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Histopathology, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland

    Sharon O’Toole & John O’Leary

Authors
  1. Sharon O’Toole
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  2. John O’Leary
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Correspondence to Sharon O’Toole .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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O’Toole, S., O’Leary, J. (2014). Ovarian Cancer Chemoresistance. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_6930-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_6930-4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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