From the Guidelines
Treatment options for metastatic ovarian cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and maintenance therapy.
Treatment Options
- Surgery: Primary debulking surgery (PDS) is recommended for advanced-stage disease if the patient is a surgical candidate, optimal cytoreduction appears feasible, and fertility is not a concern 1.
- Chemotherapy: Combination platinum-based chemotherapy is recommended for most patients, with options including carboplatin and paclitaxel 1.
- Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (NACT): NACT with interval debulking surgery (IDS) should be considered for patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer who are not good candidates for PDS due to advanced age, frailty, poor performance status, comorbidities, or disease that is unlikely to be optimally cytoreduced 1.
- Maintenance Therapy: Options for maintenance therapy after completion of primary therapy include PARP inhibitors and bevacizumab in select patients 1.
Specific Chemotherapy Regimens
- Intravenous Chemotherapy: Carboplatin AUC 5-7 mg/ml/min and paclitaxel 175 mg/m2/3 h every 3 weeks for six cycles is a recommended standard chemotherapy regimen for advanced ovarian carcinoma 1.
- Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy: IP chemotherapy is recommended for selected stage III patients with optimally debulked disease, and may be considered an option for selected patients in centers where the expertise exists 1.
From the Research
Treatment Options for Metastatic Ovarian Cancer
The treatment options for metastatic ovarian cancer include:
- Debulking surgery whenever possible and appropriate systemic therapy (chemotherapy, targeted and antiangiogenic agents) 2
- Targeted agents, such as poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, which offer more options for sequential or combined treatments 3, 4
- Immunotherapies, which have been approved over the last few years for the treatment of ovarian cancer 4
- Antiangiogenics, which have been shown to be effective in the treatment of ovarian cancer 4
- Intraperitoneal administration of β-glucan and IFNγ (BI), which has been shown to induce robust tumor regression in clinically relevant models of metastatic ovarian cancer 5
Systemic Therapy
Systemic therapy for metastatic ovarian cancer typically involves:
- Chemotherapy with platinums, taxanes, doxorubicin, topotecan, and gemcitabine 4
- Targeted therapies, such as PARP inhibitors, which have been shown to be effective in the treatment of ovarian cancer 3, 4
- Immunotherapies, which have been approved over the last few years for the treatment of ovarian cancer 4
Evolutionarily Designed Therapies
Evolutionarily designed therapies for metastatic ovarian cancer consider: