Dr. Jasgit Sachdev on What's on the Horizon for Ovarian Cancer

Jasgit Sachdev, MD, clinical associate professor at Translational Genomics Research Institute, discusses the goals she would like to see achieved regarding the treatment of ovarian cancer.

In ovarian cancer it is important to work on sub-stratifying and sub-classifying tumors and determining biomarkers that can help predict which patients are going to benefit from which types of therapies, says Sachdev.

Whether it’s checkpoint inhibitors, PARP inhibitors, or antibody-drug conjugate compounds, being able to have validated biomarkers to preselect patients and understand what’s different at a biologic sublevel is critical, she adds.

The industry has reached a ceiling regarding what can be done with standard chemotherapy drugs, especially in the setting of platinum resistance. The way forward is to look at the more targeted delivery of chemotherapy, but also using chemotherapy in combination with other agents that can potentially bypass some of the resistance that is developing in ovarian cancer patients.