The role of FGF growth factors in the development of chemotherapy drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is the most gynecological cancer, it has a 5-year mortality rate greater than 70%. When ovarian cancer patients undergo chemotherapy their gene expression changes. This project is studying a particular group of genes called Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGFs), which have been found to be very important in cancer. The hypothesis predicted that significant changes in the expression of FGF proteins are associated with the development of drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Previous work developed three resistant cell lines from the A2780 ovarian cancer cell line (A2780CBN, A2780DXL, A2780CBNDXL), In the previous studies, microarray analysis was performed to find changes in gene expression in the three cell lines. We have been able to confirm some of the changes that indicated a possible role for FGF gene expression changes in drug resistance. However, we could only confirm a change in protein expression for one of the FGF factors, FGF23, which was altered in A2780CBN and A2780CBNDXL resistant cell lines.