Identification of differentially expressed transcription factors in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common form of cancer in women in the United States. Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common and is highly lethal. In 2014, there will be an estimated 21,980 new cases and 14,270 deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States. No major strides have been made to improve survival over the past decade. Ovarian cancer is notable for initial chemotherapy sensitivity (>75% response rates) using combination platinum and taxane chemotherapy following debulking surgery. However, eventually, the vast majority of these women (>75-80%) will have their cancer recur within 12 to 24 months after diagnosis and will die of progressively chemotherapy-resistant diseases. Transcription factors act as master switches of various biochemical pathways by regulating gene transcription. Large number of studies demonstrated the role of transcription factors in cancer development and progression. However, transcription factors involved in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer have not been explored thoroughly. Therefore, we propose to using transcriptome profiling to generate a transcription factor gene signature for high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Transcriptome profiling analyses were performed on laser microdissected epithelial tumor samples from high grade serous ovarian cancer patients and microdissected ovarian surface epithelium (HOSE) samples using the Affymetrix human genome U133 Plus 2.0 microarray