Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) was demonstrated to play an important role as resistance factor in ovarian cancer (OC) and other malignancies. Thus it could serve as a biomarker to improve diagnosis and therapy. To investigate the influence of the chemotherapeutics paclitaxel and carboplatin on ovarian cancer cells, an in vitro cell culture model system with 4 OC cell lines (OVCAR-3, SK-OV-3, TOV-21G and TOV-112) was established. The cells were treated with both cytotoxic agents over a period of 120 hours. The intra- and extracellular HSP27 concentrations were assessed by western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. It could be shown that there was a significant reduction of cell growth in every cell line. The treated cells showed no induction of HSP27, whereas HSP27 concentration in the extracellular space increased. Soluble HSP27 could be detected in blood samples and serve as a biomarker. Nonetheless further investigation is needed to understand the role of HSP27 in resistance mechanisms of OC.