Dr. Muggia on the GOG 252 Trial in Ovarian Cancer

Franco M. Muggia, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) 252 trial, which looked at the use of intravenous (IV) versus intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy in the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

According to Muggia, this topic is generally in a state of transition, as IP therapy for ovarian cancer has been standard since 2006. Unfortunately, he explains, it is associated with certain toxicities and a learning curve in terms of treatment delivery.

The GOG began to carry out pilot studies to see whether they could reduce the toxicity of this treatment while retaining the efficacy, which led to the development of the GOG 252 trial.

The results of the study matured enough for progression-free survival (PFS) in March 2016, says Muggia. The findings showed that there is no difference between an IV arm—the former modified standard treatment—with IP cisplatin and IP paclitaxel, and a new arm to reduce toxicity of IP carboplatin with IV paclitaxel. This trial led to the preliminary result that would indicate no actual difference between the 3 arms.