Dr. Markman on Immune Targeting in Ovarian Cancer

Maurie Markman, MD, president, Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, editor-in-chief, OncologyLive, discusses the current status of immune targeting as potential treatment for patients with ovarian cancer.

This is a very interesting, provocative, and challenging area in ovarian cancer, Markman explains. There is sound existing evidence for researchers to theorize that immune targeting is a logical next step in treating this disease. Additionally, there are a tremendous amount of preclinical data points looking at infiltration of various lymphocyte subtypes and cells that suggest there is both an immune augmentative and suppressive effect that could potentially be modified through vaccines, immune stimulation or checkpoint inhibitors.

However, results from recent clinical trials have been disappointing, he says. Vaccine approaches have not shown to have an impact in the illness. While it has shown an immune response, a therapeutic effect has not been observed. Several drugs have been reported to show short-term responses. However, the percentage of patients who have shown tumor shrinkage associated with these agents is very low, at approximately 10% to 20%. This is the similar effect shown with multiple cytotoxic therapies over the last few decades, he concludes.