Systemic treatment for recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer

Abstract

The treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer continues to evolve with improved surgical, chemotherapeutic and targeted approaches resulting in improvements in survival. Effective salvage regimens mean that more patients who develop recurrent disease may go on to receive multiple lines of treatments over a longer period of time. New classes of targeted agents in the early and late stages of development bring hope for more gains to be made over the next few years. The paradigm of maintenance treatment is being slowly advanced with antiangiogenic therapies, although the longer term impact on overall survival at this juncture is still unclear. There are variations in practice across the world; for example, bevacizumab in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer is approved in Europe but not in the USA. Subgroups of patients with chemotherapy-refractory or -resistant disease, clear cell and mucinous cancer still respond poorly to treatment and represent an area of urgent need. The molecular characterization of these tum...