Dr. Powell on the Future of Immunotherapy in Ovarian Cancer

Matthew Powell, MD, associate professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, discusses the future of immunotherapy in ovarian cancer.

The future of immunotherapy is very exciting, Powell says. Currently, there are 4 or 5 trials that are using it in earlier lines of therapy for patients with ovarian cancer. Powell says that by giving more of these agents with anti-vascular therapy such as a VEGF inhibitor, PD-L1 inhibitors, or even PARP inhibitors, a cure may be attainable in some patients.

So far, agents such as atezolizumab (Tecentriq), avelumab (Bavencio), nivolumab (Opdivo), and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) have been evaluated as monotherapy in ovarian cancer. NRG-GY003 (NCT02498600) is a randomized phase II trial that is currently evaluating the safety and efficacy of nivolumab with or without ipilimumab (Yervoy) as a therapy for patients with persistent or recurrent epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer.

Looking ahead 5 years, Powell says that there will be more data available for immunotherapy in ovarian cancer. Many of these upfront trials will being reporting out then.