Stopping a ‘silent killer’ Discovery has potential to halt spread of ovarian cancer

five to 10 years – they just need more funding to find it.

“Once we better understand the roles of these receptors, we will be in a position to develop a drug to target these receptors and hopefully halt ovarian cancer in its tracks,” Dr Caroline Ford from University of New South Wales’ Lowy Cancer Research Centre said.

More than 1200 women a year are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 800 die from the disease, known as the silent killer because it is usually diagnosed late after it has spread through the body.

UNSW researchers have found tissue from ovarian cancer patients had significantly higher amounts of the receptor molecule, Ror2, than from benign samples.

Previous research has shown its “sister receptor”, Ror1, is also abnormally expressed in ovarian cancer patients and associated with poor survival rates.

When researchers silenced both receptors they were able to stop the spread of the cancer

tissue cells, the findings published in the journal Oncotarget show.

Dr Ford says the receptor molecules are expressed universally in 90 per cent of ovarian cancer patients, not just those with hereditary ovarian cancer. This means any treatments developed from the discovery will help almost all ovarian cancer patients.

She says researchers in Sweden looking at treatments for leukaemia, are currently testing a drug that targets the Ror1 receptor but both receptors would have to be blocked in ovarian cancer.

Drug therapies could have few side-effects because the receptors are not usually present in normal adult tissues, Dr Ford says. And the location of the receptors on the outer surface of cancer cells means the drugs can easily access them.