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Vallejos, Rodrigo

University of British Columbia

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Among the five histologically distinct types of EOC, low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (LGSC) is among the rarest with an incidence of 5%, compared to the high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) standing on an incidence of 70%. The low incidence of LGSC has contributed to it being underrepresented in EOC research endeavours. The current therapeutic options provided to LGSC patients are chemotherapy, either paclitaxel, carboplatin, or a combination. Yet, the disease is refractory to these treatments. As conventional treatment is not effective at prolonging survival of LGSC patients, alternative approached must be explored. Here, we investigate the proteome of LGSC, its precursor lesion serous borderline tumour (SBT) to identify novel prognostic and therapeutic targets against LGSC. Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) was identified as the most differentially abundant protein in LGSC relative to SBT. FAP is widely expressed and recognized protein in epithelial cancers, marking the presence of a cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). FAP+ CAFs have been associated with the T regulatory cells, a population of immune cells that foster an immunosuppressive microenvironment, in breast cancer. That correlation was also observed in LGSC through scoring of FOXP3+ cells via immunohistochemistry. Our proteomic cohort reveals that FAP is present in the stroma of LGSC and is correlated with T regulatory cells, presenting the potential to translate treatment approaches that target FAP to this cancer.

Text

2024-11-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89731

Genome Science and Technology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/