Home SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM General Information Conference Material	19th-20th FEBRUARY 2009 Aula Magna Service Centre of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Via del Pozzo 71, Modena, Italy 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. Biomarkers and treatments are the topics of the meeting and experts from research areas will present their work. The opportunity for researchers to get involved in a platform for a translational research in ovarian cancer will be also addressed and discussed. LIGHTS and OVCAD EU projects of the 6th framework program will guide the event and will take the opportunity to present their results in a special session. The target audience is scientists working in the chemistry, biology and medicine of ovarian cancer and related topics. SPONSOR: FRIEND ORGANIZATIONS: Organisation for the development of Communities in non-European Countries Centro Universitario di Servizi per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo Scientific and Organizing Board: Maria Paola Costi and Stefania Ferrari, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. (LIGHTS) Robert Zeillinger and Dan Cacsire-Castillo Tong, University of Vienna. (OVCAD) Website created and updated by Stefania Ferrari Web Hosting Service by CeSIA - Centro Servizi Informatici di Ateneo