GYNECOLOGIC CANCERS

Howard S. Hochster, MD, an internationally recognized leader in the development of cancer clinical trials, gastrointestinal oncology, and early phase cancer drugs, has joined Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey as associate director for clinical research and chief of gastrointestinal medical oncology.

According to a small,&nbsp;single-site prospective observation, women with ER-positive advanced high-grade serous ovarian cancer who received maintenance therapy with letrozole were more likely to be recurrence-free at 24 months, suggesting that letrozole may have a role to play in this setting,&nbsp;especially for patients with chemotherapy resistance or residual disease.<br /> &nbsp;

Bradley J. Monk, MD, discusses&nbsp;5 phase III clinical trials evaluating checkpoint blockade in combination regimens, as well as&nbsp;the potential for immunotherapy in ovarian cancer.

Robert L. Coleman, MD, discusses&nbsp;targeting tumor vasculature and angiogenesis in ovarian cancer.

Jalid Sehouli, MD, professor, director of the Clinic Campus Virchow and Campus Benjamin Franklin Charit&eacute; Center Gynecology, Charit&eacute; &ndash; Universitatsmedizin Berlin, discusses a randomized controlled phase III study to evaluate secondary cytoreductive surgery in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer.

Jonathan Ledermann, MD, professor of medical oncology, UCL Cancer Institute, London, United Kingdom, discusses phase III results of a study of rucaparib versus placebo following response to platinum-based chemotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer.

According to research recently reported at the&nbsp;European Society of Gynaecological Oncology 2017 Congress, deleterious mutations in the PALB2 gene may account for development of breast cancer in women with an elevated risk due to a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, but who test negative for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

Based on results from the phase III ARIEL3 trial, in which maintenance rucaparib improved median progression-free survival by 11.2 months versus placebo for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRCA</em>-mutant platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, the FDA has granted the PARP inhibitor a priority review.

According to results of a survey reported at the European Society of&nbsp;Gynaecological Oncology 2017 Congress, patients with ovarian cancer are more likely to opt to receive maintenance therapy if it could offer delay of disease progression and allow them to maintain or improve their quality of life.

Jonathan Ledermann, MD, discusses results of the phase III ARIEL3 study, as well as the future of PARP inhibitors in the maintenance setting for patients with ovarian cancer.

Niraparib&nbsp;(Zejula) has been approved by the European Commission as a maintenance therapy for women with platinum-sensitive relapsed high-grade serous&nbsp;epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy, Tesaro, the manufacturer of the treatment, has announced.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses valuable endpoints beyond overall survival (OS) that can be used in ovarian cancer clinical trials.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses overall survival as an endpoint in ovarian cancer.

According to results reported&nbsp;at the 2017 international meeting of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO 20), maintenance therapy with olaparib monotherapy was safe and provided clinically significant, long-term treatment benefits in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer.

PARP inhibitors offer great potential to improve outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer, and evidence will hopefully support their use in the first-line management of these patients,&nbsp;said Susana M. Campos, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, during her talk at the 35th annual CFS^&reg; meeting.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic malignancies. Over 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, resulting in more than 14,000 deaths per year.

Amultihistology basket study proved the targetability of the <em>AKT1 E17K</em> mutation in human cancers by treating patients with various types of cancer harboring an <em>AKT1 E17K </em>mutation with AZD5363, an oral pan-AKT inhibitor, according to findings published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology</em>.

A supplemental biologics application for bevacizumab (Avastin) has been accepted by the FDA for the first-line treatment of advanced ovarian cancer, according to Genentech, the manufacturer of the&nbsp;angiogenesis inhibitor.

Julia Elvin, MD, PhD, vice president and senior associate medical director, Foundation Medicine, discusses a study that explored the different characteristics of subtypes of ovarian cancer, peritoneal tumors, and fallopian tube tumors.

Peter R. Dottino, MD, discusses&nbsp;the utilization of molecular methods to identify ovarian cancer following treatment with chemotherapy, and how this type of research impacts the field going forward.

Researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania evaluated the genetic profiles of 160 breast and ovarian cancers associated with germline mutations in&nbsp;<em>BRCA1 </em>and <em>BRCA2&nbsp;</em>and determined that there is a relationship between the genetics of <em>BRCA 1/2 </em>mutations and the risk of resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy.&nbsp;

Jennifer Eads, MD, assistant professor of medicine, senior clinical instructor of medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, discusses the difficulties in diagnosing G3 neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs), and the varying treatment approaches for these subsets of patients.

David Metz, MD, chair of the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society, discusses the focus on multidisciplinary care and exciting areas of research being presented during the 10th Annual NANETS Symposium.&nbsp;

Based on findings from the phase III ARIEL3 trial, a supplemental new drug application has been submitted to the FDA for rucaparib as maintenance therapy for patients with recurrent&nbsp;epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in a complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.

Douglas A. Levine, MD, professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the efficacy of niraparib (Zejula) on progression-free survival in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer with partial response to the last platinum-based chemotherapy.

Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, discusses the potential for immunotherapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

There is genuine excitement within the gynecologic cancer clinical and research communities for the potential role of PARP inhibitors in the management of ovarian cancer.

Michael J. Birrer, MD, PhD, discusses the introduction of poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors to the ovarian cancer treatment landscape.

Investigators recently evaluated the genetic profiles of 160 breast and ovarian cancers associated with germline mutations in <em>BRCA1 </em>and <em>BRCA2 </em>and<em>&nbsp;</em>determined that there is a relationship between the genetics of <em>BRCA</em>1/2 mutations and the risk of resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy.

Efforts to improve outcomes in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia should follow leads provided by next-generation sequencing and appropriate use of minimal residual disease criteria, a pediatric hematologist said at the 2017 Society of Hematology Oncology Annual Meeting in Houston.