Ovarian Cancer: Methods and Protocols

1. The Epidemiology of Ovarian Cancer
2. Familial Ovarian Cancer
3. The Molecular Pathogenesis of Ovarian Cancer
4. Alterations in Oncogenes, Tumor Suppressor Genes, and Growth Factors Associated with Epithelial Ovarian Cancers
5. Pathological Assessment of Ovarian Cancer
6. T umor Markers in Screening for Ovarian Cancer
7. Primary Surgical Management of Ovarian Cancer
8. Recent Insights into Drug Resistance in Ovarian Cancer
9. Markers of Tumor Burden
10. Bioactive Interleukin-6 Levels in Serum and Ascites as a Prognostic Factor in Patients with Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
11. ELISA-Based Quantification of p105 (c-erbB-2, HER2/neu) in Serum of Ovarian Carcinoma
12. Enzyme Immunoassay of Urinary β-Core Fragment of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin as a Tumor Marker for Ovarian Cancer
13. Ovarian Cancer Models
14. Establishment of Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
15. Subcloning of Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
16. Culture and Characterization of Human Ovarian Surface Epithelium
17. MTT Growth Assays in Ovarian Cancer
18. In Vitro Invasion Assays
19. p53Transfectants in Ovarian Cancer
20. Estrogen-Responsive Ovarian Cancer Xenografts
21. The Use of Matrigel in the Establishment of Ovarian Carcinoma Cell Lines as Xenografts
22. Cytogenetics of Ovarian Cancer
23. Interphase Cytogenetics in Frozen Ovarian Tumor Tissue
24. Interphase Cytogenetics in Paraffin-Embedded Ovarian Tissue
25. Rapid Identification of Chromosomes Using Primed In Situ Labeling (PRINS)
26. Gene Amplification of c-erbB-2 Detected by FISH
27. Chromosome Microdissection for Detection of Subchromosomal Alterations by FISH
28. Quantitation of FISH Signals in Archival Tumors
29. Comparative Genomic Hybridization for the Analysis of Unbalanced Chromosomal Abnormalities in Ovarian Tumors
30. Molecular Genetics of Ovarian Cancer
31. Extraction of DNA from Microdissected Archival Tissues
32. RFLP Molecular Analysis of the Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Gene
33. PCR Microsatellite Analysis of LOH in Ovarian Tumors
34. Molecular Genetic Analysis of Flow-Sorted and Microdissected Ovarian Tumor Cells
35. SSCP and Sequence Analysis of p53 Mutations in Ovarian Tumors
36. Multiplex PCR (MPCR) Screening Can Detect Small Intragenic p53 Deletion and Insertion Mutations
37. Transfer of Human Chromosome 3 to an Ovarian Carcinoma Cell Line Identifies Regions Involved in Ovarian Cancer
38. Double- and Competitive-Differential PCR for Gene Dosage Quantitation
39. One-Dimensional Genome Scanning—Detection of Genomic Changes in Ovarian Carcinoma
40. Mapping of Tumor Suppressor Genes in Ovarian Cancers
41. Detection of the Replication Error Phenotype in Ovarian Cancer—PCR Analysis of Microsatellite Instability
42. Immunostaining Human Paraffin-Embedded Sections for Mismatch Repair Proteins
43. Quantitative PCR Detection of c-erbB-2 Gene Amplification
44. mRNA Analyses
45. In Situ Hybridization Detection of TGF-β mRNA
46. mRNA Detection by In Situ RT-PCR
47. RNase Protection Assay Analysis of mRNA for TGFβ1-3 in Ovarian Tumors
48. RT-PCR Quantitation of HSP60 mRNA Expression
49. The Effects of Butyrate and the Role of c-myc in N.1 Ovarian Carcinoma Cells D

If there is one aspect of current cancer research that represents a major ch- lenge in both novice and experienced researchers, it is the rapid advance in our understanding of the disease. Researchers can be required to switch from analysis of gene expression to kinetics of protein activation, from genetic studies to the analysis of protein funtion. Cancers are highly complex disease systems and researchers aiming to understand the functioning of cancer systems require access to a wide range of laboratory techiques from a broad range of research disciplines. Increasingly, however, published methods are incomplete or refer back to a series of previous publications each containing only a small part of the complete pro- col. The aim of Ovarian Cancer: Methods and Protocols is to provide for ovarian cancer researchers in the first instance, a laboratory handbook that will facilitate research into cancer systems by providing a series of expert protocols, with proven efficacy, across a broad range of technical expertise. Thus, there are sections on tumor genetics and cellular signal transduction, as well as sections on apoptosis and RNA analysis. The value of Ovarian Cancer: Methods and Protocols to the ovarian cancer researcher will, I trust, be considerably enhanced by (1) the provision of a series of overviews relating to the biology, diagnosis, and treatment of this important neoplasm, and (2) the provision of a series of technical overviews introducing each part that provides an expert review of the applications and pitfalls of the various techniques included.