Outlook on the Future of Ovarian and Other Gynecologic Cancers

Maurie Markman, MD, President of Medicine and Science at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses where he sees the field of ovarian cancer and other gynecologic cancers headed in the future, based on the research shared at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Markman says the focus now is on targeted therapies, precision medicine, and immunotherapy. When he completed his own medical training years ago, he went right to the National Cancer Institute to the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology because he believed the immune system would play a vital role in cancer research. However, he was still a few decades ahead of his time.

Now it is evident that the immune system plays a significant role in controlling and potentially curing cancers, Markman says. With the use of checkpoint inhibitors, immune modulators, and CAR T cells, research is now just beginning to understand the complex role of the immune system.