Dr. Swisher on the Phase III VELIA Results in Ovarian Cancer

Elizabeth M. Swisher, MD, a co-leader of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, director of Division of Gynecologic Oncology at UW Medicine, and affiliate investigator in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses results from the phase III VELIA/GOG-3005 trial in ovarian cancer.

In this phase III trial, the combination of veliparib and chemotherapy showed significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) for patients with BRCA mutations and are positive for homologous recombination deficiency.

Patients were evenly randomized amongst 3 arms to veliparib plus induction carboplatin and paclitaxel either with or without veliparib maintenance, or a control arm of induction chemotherapy with no maintenance. Unfortunately, no benefit was recognized in the arm that explored veliparib plus chemotherapy followed by placebo maintenance compared with chemotherapy with placebo maintenance. The benefits were limited to the arms that received maintenance veliparib, Swisher concludes.