On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, Master's student (Aseel Hazem Saleh) from the Department of Pharmacology successfully defended his thesis entitled: **Vascular endothelial growth factor and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 gene polymorphisms as predictors for relapse in women with ovarian cancer under bevacizumab treatment** The aim of this study was to evaluate the relapse rate in women with ovarian cancer undergoing bevacizumab treatment by exploring the impact of two SNPs in the VEGF and ICAM1 genes on the treatment. Additionally, the study assessed the association of demographic and clinical factors with relapse in these patients. The study investigated single nucleotide polymorphisms in two genes (VEGF rs3025039 and ICAM1 rs5498) and found that the homozygous (CC) genotype was more frequent in the relapse group (65.12%) compared to the non-relapse group (39.22%), with a significant difference. Conversely, the homozygous mutant genotype (TT) was more common in non-relapsing patients than in relapsing ones (19.61% vs. 6.98%), with a significant difference (p = 0.033). This polymorphism appears to have a recessive inheritance pattern, as the CC + CT genotypes were more prevalent in non-relapsing patients compared to relapsing patients (60.78% vs. 34.88%), with a significant difference. The study supports the following conclusions: there is significant variability in the relapse rate. The relapse rate is directly associated with age, ECOG score, and CA 125 level. Patients with the TT genotype for the VEGF rs3025039 polymorphism have a protective role against relapse. This means that women with the TT genotype of this SNP are about five times less likely to relapse compared to those with the CC genotype. The defense committee was composed of: - Prof. Dr. Ahmed Rahma Ali (Chairman) - Prof. Dr. Haider Ahmed Shummran (Member) - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huda Ibrahim Qasim (Member) - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fouad Kazem Kadhim (Member and Supervisor) - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qasim Shurhan Haraj (Member and Supervisor) The thesis was successfully accepted with a grade of very good.
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