Screening of three-dimensional spheroids of ovarian cancer: identification of novel therapeutics targeting stemness and chemoresistance

Epithelial ovarian cancer (OvCa) is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies in the United States (1). More than 75% of patients are diagnosed at late stages due to the insipient protracted nature of the disease and lack of specific diagnostic symptoms and/or biomarkers (2). Despite aggressive surgical debulking and cytoreduction, 80% patients experience recurrence of a chemo-resistant disease with limited treatment options (1,3). The standard of care (SOC) treatment is aggressive surgery followed by platinum-taxane chemotherapy, or neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery (2). However, cisplatin-resistance and recurrence develop in 25% of patients as early as 6 months, with the overall 5-year survival hovering around 30–40% (1,2).