ENDOMETRIOSIS-RELATED OVARIAN CARCINOGENESIS: UNRAVELLING THE ROOTS OF A LONG-STANDING ENIGMA

Endometriosis is a gynecologic disease in which ectopic endometrial tissue causes both chronic pelvic pain and infertility. Likewise, this entity has been linked with the development of certain types of epithelial ovarian cancer. The mechanisms underlying this association have remained largely elusive yet recent advances in terms of identifying histologically well-defined precursor lesions as well as key molecular and genetic abnormalities involved in the endometriosis malignant transformation have dramatically improved the understanding of this clinical conundrum.