Dr. Thigpen on Comparing Treatments in Ovarian Cancer

James "Tate" T. Thigpen, MD, professor of medicine, director of medical oncology, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, discusses the comparison of treatment options in ovarian cancer.

In ovarian cancer studies, researchers cannot control what therapies a patient will receive following progression on a study therapy. After progression, Thigpen says, additional lines of therapy are introduced at random -- sometimes up to 8-10 lines. These additional treatments obviously have an impact on survival but it becomes difficult to make an accurate comparison of therapies.

There is a need for a clinical trial endpoint to allow for a clean comparison, which Thigpen says could be progression-free survival (PFS). It has been shown that PFS can be assessed in a consistent fashion.