Investigation of the effect of human kallikrein 10 polymorphism on ovarian cancer development

Ovarian cancer represents a growing women's health issue worldwide. Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common type of cancer among women, in general the second highest among all gynecologic cancers which is the gynecological cancer type with the highest mortality rate. According to TC. Ministry of Health's statistical data published in 2008, ovarian cancer is the 7th most common cancer among women. Kallikreins are family of serine proteases with high substrate specificity. Kallikrein (kininogen) is an enzyme that cleaves proteins from arginine and lysine aminoacids. Human tissue kallikrein-type peptidases are a family of 15 serine proteases differentiated by physical functions. Kallikreins play an important role in different physical processes such as regulation and differentiation of cell growth, tissue remodeling, angiogenesis, skin shedding, human selle liquefaction, dental mines formation, neurodegeneration, inflammation, cervico-vaginal fluid and vascularization. In this thesis, fifty female patients with ovarian cancer and 50 healthy controls were included, and the kallikrein 10 (KLK10) polymorphism was examined in the groups. When the genotype and allele frequencies between the patient and the control group were examined, no statistical significance was observed. When the demographic data were compared between the study groups, there was a significant difference between fasting blood sugar (FBS) and cancer antigen 125 (CA125) values. These changes are thought to be helpful in clinical diagnosis and may be used as prognostic markers in over cancer. Key Words: Ovarian Cancer, Kallikrein 10 (KLK10), Genotype, Allel, Polymorphism