We aimed at determining the clinical relevance of KLK13 and KLK14 mRNA expression in tumor tissues of a homogeneous patient cohort afflicted with advanced high-grade serous ovarian cancer (FIGO stage III/IV).
These results indicate that KLK14 is implicated in the malignant behavior of ovarian carcinoma cells in vitro, and that KLK14 may serve as a target for therapy of ovarian carcinoma.
Given that KLK14 is hormonally regulated, differentially expressed in endocrine-related cancers, and a prognostic marker for breast and ovarian cancer at the mRNA level, we hypothesize that its encoded protein, hK14, like hK3/prostate-specific antigen, may constitute a new biomarker for endocrine-related malignancies.