Abstract:

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause for death among gynecologic malignancies, which is closely related to its biological behaviors such as high potential of invasion and metastasis as well as chemoresistance and recurrence.The above features of EOC are closely associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). EMT means that epithelial cells lose the polarity, shape and arrangement, regains stromal cells' cytoskeleton and morphology, which significantly changes the cell migration phenotype. Thus, profound research and exploration of the mechanism of EMT in EOC may help to find new ways to treat EOC, and the blockage or interference with EMT in EOC may become a new target. The mechanism of EMT in EOC is reviewed in this paper.

Key words: epithelial ovarian cancer, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, transforming growth factor, epidermal growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor, endothelin1, bone morphogenetic protein 4, estrogen