STARD9 is differentially expressed in high-grade serous ovarian cancers.
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer (1-3). We sought to identify genes associated with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) by comparing global gene expression profiles of normal ovary with that of primary tumors from women diagnosed with HGSC using published microarray data (4, 5). We identified the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein-related lipid transfer (START) domain containing protein STARD9 (6) as among the genes whose expression was most different in HGSC ovarian tumors. STARD9 expression was significantly lower in ovarian tumors relative to normal ovary. These data reveal perturbed expression of a mitotic kinesin and the only kinesin located at the daughter centriole (6) in high-grade serous ovarian cancers.