Characteristics of in vitro model systems for ovarian cancer studies

Nowadays, targeted therapy plays a growing role in oncological treatment. In ovarian cancer, particularly promising results are achieved with poliADP-ribose (PARP) inhibitors. Recent clinical trials have shown that PARP inhibitors can result in significantly longer progression free survival. These results encourage for the search for other targeted therapies and bring the hope that ovarian cancer can soon become a manageable chronic disease. Main problem in ovarian cancer research is a heterogeneity of this disease. Recent studies have shown that different histological types of ovarian cancer can originate from distinct tissues. According to the recent knowledge, “ovarian cancer” is an artificial term for distinct invasive cancers localized within the pelvis. Genetic and immunophenotype analyses have shown that high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most frequent histological type and the one with the worst prognosis, originates mainly from fallopian tube epithelium, while endometrioid and clear cell cancers originate from endometrium. For these reasons, in basic and preclinical studies on ovarian cancer one has to carefully choose a well-defined model system, corresponding to the histological type of interest. In this article, we discuss ovarian cancer cell lines most frequently used in in vitro studies. Our aim is to indicate advantages and disadvantages of different models, encompassing primary and established cell cultures, two- and three-dimensional models, etc. In particular, we would like to alert the researchers, that most popular cell lines SKOV3 and A2780, do not represent suitable model for the studies on high-grade serous ovarian cancer.