To define the role of the FHIT gene in the development of ovarian cancer, we have examined 33 ovarian carcinomas, 2 borderline tumours and 10 benign adenomas for the presence of FHIT gene alterations.
To investigate a potential role of the FHIT gene in ovarian cancer, we examined primary cell cultures derived from normal ovarian surface epithelium, ovarian tumors, and the cellular fraction of malignant ascites to determine the expression of FHIT by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.
These results suggest that the expression of abnormal transcripts of the FHIT gene is a feature of ovarian malignant/borderline tumours and that the complete loss of normal FHIT expression is related to the progression of ovarian carcinoma in a subset of the cases.