Inhibitory effect and mechanism of cucurbitacin E on the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells

Ovarian cancer has the poorest prognosis among all gynecological cancers. 1,2 Besides the concealed onset of ovarian cancer and the high tendency to abdominal dissemination and metastasis, frequent recurrence and resistance to chemotherapy are also the main reasons for treatment failure of ovarian cancer. A large number of clinical trials proved that platinum­based chemotherapy plus paclitaxel as first­line treatment produced efficacy in 80% of ovarian cancer patients, but 50%­80% of patients would develop recurrence within 2­3 years after first­line treatment and were thereby more prone to chemotherapy resistance, which then led to the failure of second­line treatment. 3­5