These findings define a novel and functionally important role of SPARC in OvCa and not only bridge the knowledge gap but highlight the need to consider SPARC protein expression in therapeutic development.
We used a syngeneic model of OvCa in <i>Sparc</i>-deficient and proficient mice to gain comprehensive insight into the paracrine effect of stromal-SPARC in metabolic programming of OvCa in the peritoneal milieu.
These results suggest SPARC might function as a tumor suppressor inhibiting angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in ovarian cancer by reducing the expression of VEGF-C and VEGF-D.
SPARC has been reported to be markedly down-regulated in ovarian carcinomas relative to the normal surface epithelium and has been suggested to act as a tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer.