Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Dec 20, 2018; 9(8): 167-171
Published online Dec 20, 2018. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v9.i8.167
Malignant peritoneal effusion acting as a tumor environment in ovarian cancer progression: Impact and significance
Alain Piché
Alain Piché, Département de Microbiologie et Infectiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke QC J1H 5N4, Canada
Author contributions: Piché A drafted the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Alain Piché, BSc, FRCP (C), MD, MSc, Professor, Département de Microbiologie et Infectiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, 3001, 12ième Avenue Nord, Sherbrooke QC J1H 5N4, Canada. alain.piche@usherbrooke.ca
Telephone: +1-819-3461110-75734 Fax: +1-819-5645392
Received: July 27, 2018
Peer-review started: July 30, 2018
First decision: October 8, 2018
Revised: October 11, 2018
Accepted: November 4, 2018
Article in press: November 4, 2018
Published online: December 20, 2018
Processing time: 147 Days and 6.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The malignant peritoneal effusion that accumulates during ovarian cancer dissemination and progression constitutes a unique tumor environment. Bidirectional communications between tumor cells and their surrounding environment influence ovarian cancer dissemination, progression and patient prognosis. To solve the complexity of this tumor environment and understand how it affects cancer progression, a paradigm shift is necessary. Peritoneal effusions should be studied as integrated systems with innovative modeling approaches.