Dr. Levine on Challenges in Ovarian Cancer

Douglas A. Levine, MD, professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses some of the ongoing challenges that researchers need to tackle in the field of ovarian cancer.

Levine hopes that researchers will be able to stratify patients better for treatments, adding that much progress has been made for patients with BRCA mutations. Additionally, physicians are working to ensure that every patient with ovarian cancer is tested for BRCA germline mutations, Levine adds.

Secondly, there is a very aggressive group of patients who have cyclin E1 amplifications but ongoing research is exploring therapeutic approaches. However, there is another patient population that does not have the BRCA mutation, a homologous recombination deficit, or a cyclin E amplification. How can researchers develop therapies that will target that group? Levine says that is what the community will see in the future.