Dr. Wenham on Rationale for Novel Immunotherapy Combos in Ovarian Cancer

Robert Wenham, MD, MS, FACOG, FACS, a gynecologic oncologist and chair of the Gynecologic Oncology Program at Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses novel immunotherapy combinations for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

The rationale behind combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy is to not only kill cells through cytotoxic activity that increases the amount of antigen exposure, but also chemically debulking tumors, Wenham says. With less tumor, it is possible that cell anergy will also be decreased, Wenham notes.

With PARP inhibitors, while repairing DNA, it is possible to inhibit the PARP enzyme and increase the number of DNA replication errors, which will then increase the number of antigens. Cytotoxicity would then be increased, due to increased antigen exposure, which makes the combination of PARP inhibitors and checkpoint inhibitors attractive, Wenham concludes.