Optimizing treatment selection and sequencing decisions for first-line maintenance therapy of newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer.

The incidence and mortality rates of ovarian cancer are increasing globally. Ovarian cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage in 80% of women. After standard, platinum-based, front-line chemotherapy, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and antiangiogenic agents are successfully employed as maintenance strategies for newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer patients. Landmark clinical studies, including SOLO-1, PAOLA-1, PRIMA, and VELIA, have provided crucial insights on optimizing first-line maintenance treatment using PARP inhibitors. A group of ovarian cancer experts, primarily from low- and middle-income countries, met in September 2019 to discuss new developments for the first-line treatment of ovarian cancer and its implications. Key implications of the evolving clinical data included: (1) olaparib or niraparib maintenance therapy appears to be the preferred choice for patients with BRCA 1/2 mutations; hence, BRCA testing is beneficial in identifying these patients; (2) niraparib monotherapy and olaparib in combination with bevacizumab have demonstrated significant benefit in progression-free survival (PFS) in homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive patients; (3) bevacizumab, niraparib alone, or observation can be an alternative for HRD-negative patients; (4) further data is warranted to explore the role of PARP inhibitors in treating HRD-negative, ovarian cancer patients to confirm findings of the exploratory analysis of PRIMA; (5) PARP inhibitors may be beneficial for stage IV ovarian cancer patients with inoperable disease and patients with prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy; and (6) there is an urgent need to increase awareness in both clinicians and patients on BRCA and HRD testing for optimizing treatment decision-making and improving clinical outcomes in newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer patients. In clinical medicine, the limited availability of family history (FH) information and the complexity of FH criteria has hampered the implementation of BRCA testing. Moreover, many cancer patients with BRCA mutations are not tested because they do not meet the criteria for FH. Consequently, BRCA testing in many high income countries, including the US and Australia, is underused and used inappropriately, which has resulted in the loss of valuable opportunities for better cancer management and cancer prevention.
Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jeffrey C.H. Goh – has been Advisory Board member, received sponsorship for conference and speaker’s bureau from AstraZeneca and Advisory Board Member for Tesaro. Charlie Gourley- has been part of advisory boards of Roche, Astrazeneca, MSD, Tesaro, Nucana, Clovis Foundation One, Sierra and has received research funding for Astrazeneca, Novartis, Aprea, Nucana and Tesaro. David SP Tan- has received research support from Astra Zeneca, Karyopharm Therapeutics, Bayer, Roche. Has been a part of Advisory Boards for Astra Zeneca, Roche, Bayer, MSD, Eisai, and Tessa Therapeutics and received honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Roche, MSD, Bayer, Eisai, Takeda and Eisai. Angelica Nogueira-Rodrigues has been consultant for Eurofarma, Roche, Astra Zeneca, MSD, GSK and Eisai and received educational training from Roche, Eurofarma, Astra Zeneca, MSD. Hesham Elghazaly- No conflicts of interest. Marc Edy Pierre- No conflicts of interest. Gonzalo Giornelli- has been part of Adboard for AstraZeneca, Roche, MSD, Janssen Cilag and Speaker for AstraZeneca, MSD. Byoung-Gie Kim- No conflicts of interest. Flavia Morales – Vasquez- No conflicts of interest. Alexandra Tyulyandina- has received research support from Astra Zeneca, Roche, MSD and received honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Roche, MSD, Biocad, Tekeda, Pfiser, Eisai.
(© 2022 The Authors.)