Credit: Zhang et al./Cell, 2016
The illustration hints at the complexity of the development of ovarian cancer. Each of the purple boxes signifies a particular protein, a cellular workhorse which affects other proteins and ultimately the behavior of a cell. Here, more than two dozen proteins are affected by a protein known as PDGFR, or platelet-derived growth factor receptor, which plays an important role in the formation of new blood vessels. The team showed that this molecule and its pathways are much more active in the tumors of patients with ovarian cancer who had short survival compared to other patients who lived longer than five years.