[Immunological analogies between ovarian cancer and pregnancy].

During pregnancy an environment allowing installation of tolerance toward the fetus is set up locally at the materno-fetal interface. Numerous effectors of immunity are involved in this tolerance (NK cell, T cell, Macrophages, dendritic cell). Specific mechanisms during pregnancy attract locally these immunological cells. In the decidua, they are educated toward tolerance. These mechanisms evolve during the pregnancy because at the end of the pregnancy, tolerance is broken to prepare and activate the labor. Ovarian tumors, after having surmounted the immunosurveillance, like trophoblast, chair the installation of a tolerance of their host facilitating the development of the disease. The blocking of these mechanisms of tolerance coupled with activation of mechanisms of defenses offer new perspectives in the treatment of the ovarian cancer. The authors suggest showing the analogies of the tolerance observed during ovarian cancer and pregnancy. The knowledge of the orchestration of the physiological mechanisms observed during pregnancy will offer new therapeutic targets.
(Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)