Overall, these results reinforce the potential of HER3-targeted affibodies for cancer therapy and establish treatment of ovarian cancer as an application where multivalent HER3 ligands may be useful.
In this study, we investigated HER3 on protein and mRNA expression in histologically defined subtypes of ovarian cancer looking for an influence on patient's survival.
Ligand-mediated activation of ErbB3 and ErbB4 is implicated in the pathogenesis of several human malignancies including cancer of the ovary and melanoma.
Although anti-EGFR-targeted therapy has shown limited clinical activity in ovarian cancer to date, a recent report suggests that activation of ErbB3, one of the members of the EGFR family, may support the growth and proliferation of ovarian cancer cells and that ErbB3 may therefore serve as a potential therapeutic target in this disease.
A pilot study on relationships of selected molecular factors [erbB-1, erbB-2, erbB-3, and c-myc oncogene average gene copy numbers (AGCN); steroid receptors and pS2 gene expression; tumor cells' DNA values] to the ex vivo chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer in a modified adenosine triphosphate cell viability chemosensitivity assay (ATP-CVA), was performed.
Immunoprecipitation analysis of primary cultures of human ovarian carcinomas also demonstrate the expression of a 90 kDa ErbB-3 related protein that is secreted.