Assessment of the Applicability of Integrative Tumor Response Assays in Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

Aim: To prospectively correlate clinical responses to second-line chemotherapy for recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with in vitro integrative tumor-response assay (ITRA) results.
Patients and Methods: Forty-four patients with advanced EOC were enrolled from 2015-2017 at the Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. ITRA comprised of two sequential histoculture drug response assays (HDRAs) of the tumor tissues. The first stage was HDRA with paclitaxel-carboplatin, paclitaxel, and carboplatin chemotherapy. The second stage was performed with surviving tumor cells from the first stage using topotecan, belotecan, gemcitabine, doxorubicin, ifosfamide, vinorelbine, and etoposide.
Results: The median follow-up period was 23.35 (range=4-35.35) months. Eighteen patients (40.9%) completed the second-line chemotherapy, based on the ITRA results. The objective response rate was 38.9%. The clinical response rate was 50%; two patients (11.1%) had stable disease. The sensitivity of ITRA for predicting response was 85.7% (specificity=18.2%; accuracy=44.44%).
Conclusion: ITRAs had acceptable applicability and may help choose second-line chemotherapy for patients with advanced EOC.
(Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)