[The potential role of heat shock proteins in the treatment of ovarian cancer].

Ovarian carcinoma has the highest mortality among gynecologic cancers. Most of the patients are sensitive to the first-line platinum-based combined chemotherapy and they will present a complete response, but most of them will relapse within 24 months. The resistance to chemotherapy is a great therapeutic challenge. Recent figures show that heat shock proteins play a significant role in certain mechanisms of carcinogenesis and are involved in the resistance to anticancer drug therapy. Our paper gives a summary of recent data concerning heat shock proteins in ovarian carcinoma.