Differential expression of c-fos proto-oncogene in two subclones derived from a human ovarian cancer cell line.

The expression of the c-fos proto-oncogene was studied in two sublines of the human ovarian cancer cell line SW626. One subline (SW/B) presents the typical 2.0 kb mRNA which is detectable within 15 min.

Overexpression of p185 is not related to erbB2 amplification in ovarian cancer.

Background: While in breast cancer the amplification and overexpression of the erbB2 gene has been reported in numerous studies and found to be correlated to poor prognosis, information about this oncogene with respect to ovarian cancer is still limited. A recent study reported that approximately 30% of tumor biopsies from ovarian cancer patients exhibited erbB2 amplification and overexpression and suggested that the overexpression of this oncogene is an indicator of bad prognosis in ovarian cancer. The purpose of our studies was to investigate amplification of the erbB2 gene, the levels of erbB2 m-RNA and the erbB2 product (p185) in ovarian cancer, and the correlation between these findings and the pathological and clinical features.