Combination Regimens May Improve Responses in Ovarian Cancer

Floor J. Backes, MD, an associate professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—James, discusses the immunotherapeutic options available for treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

There are PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies, as well as anti—CTLA-4 antibodies, says Backes. There are also many combinations with these different agents currently in development in clinical trials for ovarian cancer.

Backes notes that the checkpoint inhibitors have not shown very high responses in patients with ovarian cancer. The responses with checkpoint inhibitors have only ranged from 10% to 15%. Because of this, combination regimens are under evaluation to see if we can make these more effective. Investigators are combining immunotherapy with antiangiogenic agents, anti—CTLA-4 antibodies, or PARP inhibitors.

With these combinations, it always seems like we can achieve higher responses than we can with the single agents alone, Backes concludes.

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