Drug resistance in ovarian cancer: biomarkers andtreatments Highlights from the DROC meeting held in Modena (Italy) on the 19th and 20th of February 2009. Scientific topics discussed at the meeting are reported in the present issue.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer and the most common cause of death from gynecologic cancer in women of all ages in the Western world. This primarily reflects the fact that there are no early warning signs, and most patients with epithelial ovarian cancer present at an advanced stage of the pathology at the time of diagnosis. Efforts to improve survival continue to focus on the development of more effective systemic therapies, by the identification of biomarkers for early diagnosis, improving drug efficacy and contrasting drug resistance. Early diagnosis is crucial, marking the difference between a 95 percent survival rate for cancers found at the earliest stage and 20 percent survival among patients diagnosed with advanced disease. New and higher quality therapies are at the frontiers. The area is fragmented and needs to be more coordinated with the clinical aspects. Drug discovery, drug safety, drug delivery, proteomics, system biology, pharmacogenetics, diagnostics for patient selection and therapy monitoring in clinical trials are essential and strictly interconnected.In this event we would like to point out these aspects and the need to technically and scientifically link the different disciplines under the same aim of identifying a compact strategy to combat ovarian cancer. Biomakers and treatments are the topics of the meeting and experts from different area will present their work and will create a platform to avenue translational research in this area.