VDR and ovarian cancer: VDR has been found in rat ovaries by immunohistochemistry (30), as well as hen ovaries by ligand binding assays (31), indicating that the ovary is a target organ for vitamin D. Studies have also shown that VDR is expressed in gynecologic neoplasms, such as ovarian cancer (32,33), which suggests that 1,25(OH)2D3 may be effective against ovarian cancer.