Meeting the challenge of ascites in ovarian cancer: new avenues for therapy and research

Cet article passe en revue les perpectives thérapeutiques offertes par les connaissances récentes sur la physiopathologie des ascites malignes, en particulier dans le contexte d'un cancer ovarien

Résumé en anglais

Malignant ascites presents a considerable clinical challenge to the management of ovarian cancer, but also provides a wealth of opportunities for translational research. The accessibility of ascitic fluid and its cellular components make it an excellent source of tumour tissue for the investigation of prognostic and predictive biomarkers, pharmacodynamic markers and for molecular profiling analysis. In this Opinion article, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of its pathophysiology, the development of new methods to characterize its molecular features and how these findings can be used to improve the treatment of malignant ascites, particularly in the context of ovarian cancer.