Ezrin is an Essential Marker for Metastasis of Gynecologic Cancer

Worldwide, gynecologic cancers account for approximately 22.9% of all female cancers, second only to breast cancer. In 2004, approximately 73,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with a cancer affecting the reproductive organs, and approximately 27,000 women died from gynecologic cancer. Among the different types of gynecologic cancer, endometrial cancer is the most common while ovarian cancer is the most deadly. It is ranked the fifth most common cause of cancer deaths in women. This condition is strongly related to late detection and increased prevalence in older women. Furthermore, in spite of having advanced diagnostic tools for gynecologic cancer detection and improved treatment modalities, there is no outstanding achievement of survival rate in patients with gynecologic cancer, and a lot of cases of advanced gynecologic malignancies are resistant to chemotherapy. So, many researchers have focused on the basic mechanism of cancer progression and distant metastasis to find clues that will improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. Many researchers are trying to find key proteins that are relevant in transforming normal cells to dysplastic or cancer cells. These proteins can better explain the complicated ISSN 1226-8704 http://dx.doi.org/10.6118/jksm.2012.18.2.81 J Korean Soc Menopause 2012;18:81-93