Ovarian Cancer

Three different chemotherapy regimens, each combined with bevacizumab, failed to demonstrate an advantage for patients with advanced ovarian cancer or build on results of a landmark trial reported more than a decade ago.

Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, discusses ongoing developments with olaparib, as well as the overall future of PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer.

An ongoing clinical trial has begun the process of evaluating whether the addition of a booster agent can take the anticancer activity of PD-1 directed immunotherapy to another level.

Shannon Westin, MD, discusses refining the use of PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer by gaining a greater understanding of mechanisms of resistance and exploring combination and sequencing possibilities.

Combining 3 markers of homologous recombination deficiency significantly improved prediction of outcome of platinum-based treatment of ovarian cancer compared with the individual markers, a retrospective analysis of tissue samples showed.

Patients with advanced ovarian cancer harboring mutations in homologous recombination (HR) genes, including BRCA1/2, had improved survival outcomes versus patients without HR mutations.

David M. Gershenson, MD, professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the evolution of targeted therapies for patients with rare gynecologic malignancies.

Multimodal screening using CA-125 and a risk assessment algorithm could reduce the risk of mortality from ovarian cancer in certain women.

Although ovarian cancer remains a formidable challenge in the United States, therapeutic advances achieved during the past several years have provided specialists in gynecologic malignancies with more options than ever for treating patients.

Adjuvant hormone therapy was associated with a 37% reduction in the risk of death in women with epithelial ovarian cancer.

Sanaz Memarzadeh, MD, PhD, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the director of the Gynecologic Oncology Discovery Lab at UCLA, discusses her preclinical research on resistant tumor cells in ovarian cancer.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to the multi-epitope folate receptor alpha (FRα) vaccine TPIV 200 as a treatment for patients with ovarian cancer.

The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced ovarian cancer continues to increase, even though the practice has not been shown to improve survival versus primary cytoreduction.

Franco Muggia, MD, professor of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the current status of intraperitoneal therapy for patients with gynecologic malignancies.

Early promising responses seen with immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with ovarian cancer still need to be validated in larger randomized trials before a conclusion is made regarding their true efficacy.

Dr. Noah Kauff discusses how hysterectomy, in addition to standard risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) measures, should be considered in BRCA+women to reduce the risk of serous uterine cancers.

The evaluation of noncytotoxic agents for the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer has produced encouraging findings in recent months, which has led to the approval of new agents with novel mechanisms of action and continuing studies into many more potential therapies.

Sanaz Memarzadeh, MD, PhD, gynecologic oncology, obstetrics and gynecology, University of California, Los Angeles, discusses recurrence rates in ovarian cancer.

The jury is still out on whether use of an algorithm to help classify risk levels in ovarian cancer can improve overall survival but a company is already marketing the system in Britain and plans to bring it to the United States before the end of the year.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated clinical activity and safety in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Sanaz Memarzadeh, MD, PhD, discusses a combination regimen of birinapant and carboplatin in patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancers and high levels of cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein (cIAP) in their CA-125–negative cells.

Robert L. Coleman, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the next steps following results of the ARIEL2 trial, which aimed to identify patients with ovarian cancer most likely to respond to rucaparib using tumor genetic analysis.

Research evidence has been mounting that PARP inhibitors are not just for gynecologic malignancies-or for patients whose tumors harbor inherited BRCA defects.

Noah D. Kauff, MD, FACOG, gynecologist and geneticist, director, Ovarian Cancer Screening and Prevention, Gynecology Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the main challenges in treating uterine cancer.