Autophagy and ovarian cancer

Recent research has demonstrated the importance of autophagy as an underlying mechanism in carcinogenesis. In this study, Liu and colleagues show that arsenic trioxide induces an autophagic pathway in human ovarian carcinoma cells, and can synergise with everolimus (Rad001) to induce cytotoxicity. These results are particularly important because there is an urgent need for targeted therapeutic agents in ovarian cancer, to avoid the significant side-effects of conventional chemotherapeutic agents; however, Rad001 has not shown clinical efficacy as a single agent in ovarian carcinoma. The combination of these two agents represents a new direction for ovarian cancer therapy. Liu et al. (2012) Endocrine-Related Cancer 19 711–723.

Read the full article at: DOI: 10.1530/ERC-12-0150