Articles related to OVARIAN CANCER

This update is based on the results from the June 2022 ATHENA-MONO2 phase III multinational, double-blind, randomized controlled trial (RCT), which showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with stage III-IV epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy.

Until a tumor is determined to be TMB-high or MSI-H/MMRd, and thus qualifies for treatment with pembrolizumab or dostarlimab on the basis of cancer site-agnostic approval, there is no justification for the use of single-agent ICB in unselected populations with recurrent EOC. However, the clinical trials carried out up to this point show that ICB can induce long-lasting responses in a relatively small fraction of individuals. These discoveries offer opportunities and challenges to the medical and scientific communities, including the need to use novel technologies to locate predictive biomarkers and create immunotherapies that go beyond ICB to improve the effectiveness of these drugs.

A Q&A session with Thomas J. Herzog, MD, the Deputy Director at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center in Ohio, who discusses the PARP inhibitors olaparib (Lynparza, AstraZeneca), niraparib (Zejula, GSK), and rucaparib (Rubraca, Clovis Oncology); the ATHENA-MONO, ENGOT-OV16/NOVA, SOLO2, and ARIEL3 clinical trials; and the implications of the “Dear Health Care Provider” letters that were issued earlier this year regarding PARP inhibitors.

Dr. Janos Tanyi, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is joined by Dr. Charles Turck to discuss fluorescence-guided, intraoperative imaging as well as a new imaging drug to help physicians better detect ovarian cancer.

This phase III trial evaluated the PARP inhibitor fuzuloparib versus placebo as a maintenance treatment after second- or later-line platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with high-grade, platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer. Two-hundred-fifty-two (252) patients were randomly assigned to the fuzuloparib (n = 167) or placebo (n = 85). Twice daily oral fuzuloparib as maintenance therapy was superior to placebo in PFS improvement. Further, benefit was observed both in patients with germline BRCA 1/2 mutations and in those without mutations.

An epigenetic inhibitor can boost immune system activity in patients with ovarian cancer, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.