Immunotherapy Added to Chemotherapy Improves Ovarian Cancer Patients’ Prognosis

Results from a randomized phase 2 trial presented at the Society for Gynecologic Oncology’s 50th Annual Meeting show that a newly developed immunotherapy treatment combined with standard chemotherapy improve the prognosis for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. 

David Cibula, MD, PhD, of the Gynecologic Oncology Centre, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, and colleagues explained that the randomized phase 2 trial compared overall survival of women who received chemotherapy with and without immunotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer. Women treated with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy experienced significantly prolonged survival.

“Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy uses the patient’s own immune system to combat cancer and offers long-lasting antitumor immunity,” explained a press release focused on the study. “Immunotherapies are one of the newest and most promising treatments for ovarian cancer, which typically is diagnosed at a later stage and subsequently harder to treat.”

The trial consisted of 71 randomized patients between November 2013 and May 2015 who had serious serous, endometrioid, or mucinous ovarian carcinoma, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0–2, complete response after first-line platinum-based chemotherapy that lasted more than 6 months, and at least one measurable lesion. After 2  years, patients receiving the dendritic cell-based immunotherapy survival showed a significant difference in survival curves compared to the placebo group and had a corresponding survival of 72.4% and 40.9%, respectively. 

According to the Dr Cibula, “A major advantage of this immunotherapy is an excellent safety profile and tolerance by patients thanks to an almost absence of any toxicity...There are currently not many other alternatives in clinical development with such promising results.” A phase 3 clinical trial is planned for 2019. —Edan Stanley