ATLANTA, March 7 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have found ovarian cancer cells might develop using a genetic process normally involved in the formation of fallopian tubes.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the university's Ovarian Cancer Institute discovered the protein, PAX8, involved in the development of fallopian tubes, is present in ovarian cancer cells, but not in normal ovarian tissue.
The scientists say that discovery not only provides a new target for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, but also opens new avenues for basic research in ovarian cancer pathology.
"Our finding sustains the promise of a molecular genetic understanding of different cancers and emphasizes the importance of describing cancer in the context of normal human development that has gone awry due to genetic and epigenetic alterations," said lead researcher Nathan Bowen.
The study appears in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.
