Dr Markman on Future Research Directions in Gynecologic Oncology

“Our increasing understanding of the fundamental biology of cancer, [including] what makes cancer start, what makes it grow, and what makes it become resistant [to treatment] has allowed for insights that are now being translated into new drugs, [treatment] strategies, and [patient] monitoring approaches that are increasingly having an impact for patients.”

Maurie Markman, MD, president of Medicine and Science at City of Hope, discussed the effect of recent developments in cancer research on future areas of interest for investigations in gynecologic malignancies.

Markman noted that the current landscape of cancer research is evolving rapidly, and is fueled in part by an increasing understanding of cancer biology. This includes deeper knowledge of what causes cancer to initially form, what makes tumors grow, and what can make them resistant to treatment, he added. This knowledge has translated to the development of new drugs, treatment regimens, and patient monitoring strategies, which are increasingly improving outcomes for patients, he said.

Markman explained that modern approaches to cancer treatment have not only positively affected overall survival outcomes, but also quality of life measures. However, the financial cost of these innovations will need to be addressed in the future, Markman said.

One such abstract examining the effect of a given treatment approach on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) was the phase 3 OUTBACK trial (ACTRN12610000732088), which evaluated chemoradiotherapy plus adjuvant chemotherapy compared with chemoradiotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Findings from the study presented during the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that patients treated with chemoradiotherapy with adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 367) as well as those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone (n = 369) both ranked sexual activity as the most common moderate to severe issue at year 1, with respective rates of 63% and 65%. At year 1, patients in both arms also ranked worry for their future health (50% vs 38%), hot flushes/sweats (39% vs 35%), frequent urination (38% vs 32%), and trouble sleeping (35% vs 30%) as common moderate to severe PROs.