Gene Expression Profiling of Human High-Grade Serous Ovarian Tumor Samples

The goal of the study was to further delineate the molecular signatures associated with high-grade serous ovarian cancer in order to develop validated clinically useful prognostic signatures with the potential to guide therapy decisions. Fresh frozen samples were prospectively collected from a series of 174 consecutive women with high-grade serous ovarian, primary peritonial, or fallopian tube cancer who underwent surgery by a gynecologic oncologist at Mayo Clinic betweern 1994 and 2005. All patients received postoperative chemotherapy with a platinum agent, and 75% received a taxane. All patients signed an Institutional Review Board approved consent for bio-banking, clinical data extraction and molecular analysis. Median follow-up time was 35 months (range, 1-202 months). Fourteen patients (8%) were included in the TCGA study. High grade serous ovarian tumors (n=174) were compared to a reference pool of 106 ovarian samples. Mixed reference includes normal, benign, borderline, and malignant sample of various histolgies.