William P. Mcguire Iii, MD

The data on HE4 as a prognosticator in both ovarian and endometrial cancer constitute, at most, an interesting observation, but most likely they are simply a reflection of total tumor burden. There are certainly not enough data to justify making major treatment decisions in ovarian or endometrial cancer on the basis of absolute marker levels. Proteomics and genomics seem more likely to make a difference in this area.

Piver gives his perspective on the management of epithelial ovarian cancer in the elderly. This subject has been dealt with previously by numerous authors, with a general consensus that advancing age is an independent negative prognostic factor when multivariate statistics are applied to the multiple parameters affecting outcome

The safety and efficacy of darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp) at 3.0 µg/kg administered every 2 weeks and recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) given as 40,000 U weekly or 150 U/kg three times weekly were evaluated by

The article by Drs. Takimoto and Arbuck reviews the chemistry, mechanism of action, pharmacology and clinical trials of topotecan (Hycamtin), one of two topoisomerase I inhibitors approved recently by the FDA. Topotecan was approved for refractory ovarian cancer and irinotecan (Camptosar) for advanced colorectal cancer. These drugs represent a new drug class designed to inhibit topoisomerase I, an enzyme involved in relaxation of torsional strain in supercoiled DNA allowing replication and translation. The authors’ overview is informative and unbiased.