Ovarian Cancer

A large study found no association between the use of metformin or statins and the incidence of ovarian cancer in women with type 2 diabetes.

In this interview, Dr. Stephanie Blank discusses the recently released updates to the US Preventive Services Task Force Guideline on Ovarian Cancer Screening, and how patients and clinicians should interpret them and take action.

Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy is a reasonable treatment approach for ovarian cancer because it can directly expose the surface tissues to which the cancer has disseminated to an extremely high concentration of the chemotherapy drug.

There will be no further randomized phase III trials of cytotoxic IP chemotherapy; IP therapy in ovarian cancer will soon be an historical footnote along with other failed approaches in cancer care.

Lifastuzumab vedotin offered a modest improvement in progression-free survival over standard care in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

A meta-analysis incorporating tens of thousands of individuals found no association between the use of antidepressants and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.

The novel agent prexasertib showed promising activity and was reasonably well tolerated in a phase II study of high-grade, heavily pretreated, BRCA wild-type serous ovarian carcinoma.

Use of oral contraceptives may be beneficial for chemoprevention for a range of women with different baseline cancer risks, according to the results of a new study.

Treatment with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy along with cytoreductive surgery resulted in better survival outcomes than surgery alone in patients with stage III epithelial ovarian cancer, according to a new study.

The FDA has granted priority review status to rucaparib as maintenance therapy for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, according to the drug’s developer.

The addition of pazopanib to paclitaxel failed to improve outcomes over paclitaxel alone in women with persistent or recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer.

The majority of surveyed ovarian cancer patients required a 5-year survival benefit of 6% or less to justify an additional 50 miles of travel for cancer care.

Comprehensive geriatric assessments will play an increasingly important role in identifying patient frailty and personalizing geriatric oncology treatment, according to recently published reviews.

Extending the platinum-free interval following disease progression in ovarian cancer with a non-platinum agent does not improve outcomes over the standard practice of using a platinum-based chemotherapy, according to a prospective trial.

A large database study found that most patients with stage I endometrioid epithelial ovarian cancer or ovarian clear cell cancer do not have better survival outcomes when treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.

The relative importance of common chemotherapy side effects has shifted substantially over the last few decades, according to a new study. In general, psychosocial effects have become more important while physical effects seem less significant to patients than in the past.

Weekly dose-dense chemotherapy can be delivered successfully and with lower toxicity than standard 3-weekly regimens, but it does not improve progression-free survival among patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, according to a large new study presented at the ESMO.

The FDA approved olaparib as maintenance therapy for adult patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. The agent is also now approved in tablet form.

Two studies on Lynch syndrome highlight cancer screening and surveillance opportunities.

Olaparib tablet maintenance therapy provided a significant improvement in progression-free survival over placebo in patients with relapsed, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer with a BRCA1/2 mutation.

A new study that used prospective data provides estimates of cancer risk based on BRCA1/2 mutation status and shows the potential role of family history and the location of the mutation in assessing risk.

Niraparib is the most effective but most costly of the currently FDA-approved PARP inhibitors for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer.

In a Significant Percentage of Patients, Neoadjuvant Therapy Yields Equivalent Survival, With Better Quality of Life and Lower Costs

Cytoreductive Surgery Is the Best Way to Affect Survival Outcomes

Despite previously reported progression-free survival improvements with cediranib, results from the ICON6 trial failed to show a statistically significant improvement in overall survival.

Systematic lymphadenectomy in patients with advanced ovarian cancer and complete resection does not improve progression-free or overall survival, and should be omitted, according to results of a new study.

Adding bevacizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not improve complete macroscopic response rate or progression-free survival in women with ovarian cancer.

Platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients with a positive predictive AGO score who undergo a secondary debulking surgery after relapse on platinum chemotherapy experience longer progression-free survival.

Despite toxicity, olaparib maintenance therapy is associated with improved patient-reported symptoms outcomes and improved quality-adjusted progression-free survival among patients with germline BRCA mutation-positive, platinum-sensitive relapsed serious ovarian cancer.

A phase I study combining the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab with either olaparib or cediranib found that the combinations are reasonably well tolerated and active in recurrent women’s cancers.