Abstract    Ovarian cancer is the most common cancer to be detected in women at an advanced stage and is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women globally. Molecular mechanisms in the oncogenesis of ovarian tumors remain active areas of research where PTEN, a tumor suppressor gene has been shown to mediate G1 cell cycle arrest and /or apoptosis in several cell lines such as glioma, breast, prostate and ovarian cell lines. In this study, we tried to evaluate the expression of this tumour suppressor gene and to determine the correlation of PTEN with histological sub type and grade of these tumours. PTEN mutations in surface epithelial tumours of the ovary have not been studied extensively and a thorough analysis of previous papers also reveals the possibility of a proposed area of research.

Keywords: Akt, LOH, PTEN, Ovarian tumors.