HOXC8 and ovarian carcinoma: It is also clear that the over-expression of some HOX genes is directly related to the degree of malignancy, for example elevated expression of HOXC8 is correlated with the loss of differentiation of prostate tumours [20], although our data indicate that HOXC8 is actually expressed at a lower level in the ovarian cancer lines SK-OV3 and OV-90 as compared to normal ovarian tissue.