Will Epigenetics Help Overcome Cisplatin Resistance in Ovarian Cancers?

Hello Epiexperts! There are a couple recent open access papers to point out to you this week. Both relate to ovarian cancer progression and desensitization to the chemotherapy, Cisplatin. Cisplatin resistance is the primary obstacle to surviving ovarian cancer. These cancers are rare thankfully, but the 5 year survival rate is only 15-20%. Epigentics researchers are actively engaged in confronting this challenging disease. There are several Phase II clinical trials in progress for individual and combinational therapies using DNA methylation inhibitors and histone deacetlase (HDAC) inhibitors. Until those epigenetics based therapy trial results are available, as things stand, the current outlook is bleak. Please see this piece by Donna Trussell, in the Washington Post. She writes from her personal perspective … Continue reading →