Ovarian Cancer

Mice have been used in ovarian cancer research mainly as hosts for cell lines derived from human ovarian tumors and ascites. Such models provided valuable information into the nature of metastatic ovarian cancer and possible treatment strategies. However, the complexity of genetic aberrations in human ovarian cancer cell lines precluded understanding of the initiating events responsible for ovarian cancer induction. Since the majority of ovarian cancer patients present at an advanced stage of the disease, it has been difficult to identify the precursor lesions that could be used to study the early morphologic and genetic changes in ovarian cancer. It is thought that the development of animal models in which ovarian cancer can be induced and studied during its early stages will enable better understanding of early ovarian cancer lesions and elucidate molecular events that support ovarian cancer progression. The difficulties in generating such models include the lack of an adequate ovaryspecific promoter, the uncertainty about the tissue of origin for different histologic types of ovarian cancer, and the deficiency in understanding the genetic aberrations responsible for ovarian cancer induction. In spite of these difficulties, the first advances toward generating mouse models for ovarian cancer have been made.