Dr. Salani on Opportunities for Precision Medicine in Cervical Cancer

Ritu Salani, MD, gynecologic oncologist, associate professor in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and director of the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center–The James, discusses opportunities for precision medicine in cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is a ripe area of interest right now, says Salani, although the field has lagged behind some of the other gynecologic cancers in terms of advances. In recent years, some targets have been identified in cervical cancer, adds Salani. Immunotherapy has been a growing area of interest in cervical cancer, particularly in terms of PD-L1 expression. Notably, June 2018 pembrolizumab (Keytruda) received regulatory approval from the FDA for use in patients with this disease, adds Salani.

Other biomarkers that accentuate the benefit with targeted therapies are emerging in the field as well, such as HER2 mutations, which occur in a small subset of cervical cancers. Other areas of research include combining immunotherapy with other immunotherapeutic agents and possibly agents that target homologous recombination deficiency, concludes Salani.