Advancing Ovarian Cancer Treatment: Insights From Emerging Therapies

A panelist discusses how National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines have influenced molecular testing in ovarian cancer, highlighting the importance of biomarkers like BRCA genes for treatment decisions, prognostic information, and family prevention strategies.

A panelist discusses how folate receptor alpha (FRα) expression testing plays a crucial role in determining eligibility for mirvetuximab soravtansine (an antibody-drug conjugate therapy), emphasizing the importance of comprehensive biomarker testing at diagnosis rather than piecemeal testing.

A panelist discusses how multiple molecular biomarkers beyond BRCA and homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing are emerging as important for guiding ovarian cancer therapy, including microsatellite instability (MSI), tumor mutational burden (TMB), HER2, p53, KRAS, and CCNE amplification.

A panelist discusses how education and cost are key challenges in ensuring comprehensive molecular testing is performed in a timely manner for patients with ovarian cancer, emphasizing the need for better education of health care providers and more affordable, widely available testing options.

A panelist discusses how tumor heterogeneity (both spatial and temporal) affects molecular testing reliability in ovarian cancer, highlighting that although most biomarkers show little heterogeneity, newer approaches like liquid biopsies can provide a more comprehensive genetic profile of the entire tumor burden.

A panelist discusses how guidelines from organizations like the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) can improve clinician awareness and adoption of molecular testing in community oncology settings while acknowledging that some effective treatments work across patient populations without requiring biomarker stratification.

A panelist discusses how antibody-drug conjugates like mirvetuximab should be sequenced in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, recommending it as first-line therapy for folate receptor alpha–high tumors due to higher response rates when used earlier.

A panelist discusses how novel targeted therapies such as antibody-drug conjugates are rapidly evolving in gynecologic oncology, with multiple agents targeting different biomarkers in development, though optimal sequencing strategies remain to be determined.