Emerging drugs for ovarian cancer

Long-term survival of patients with ovarian cancer remains poor and therapy disappointing despite decades of experience with various chemotherapies, including the current gold standard, carboplatin/paclitaxel (TC).

To review current and emerging therapies for ovarian cancer in search of ways to improve outcome, reduce toxicity, and maintain quality of life.

This is a review of the current status of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, the ongoing clinical studies, emerging therapies, and proposals for future research.

Novel chemotherapeutic agents are needed to reduce toxicity and improve efficacy. Effective biological agents must be found and tested, either in combination with TC or as maintenance therapy after TC. An appropriate regimen and number of repeat treatment cycles for intraperitoneal chemotherapy is urgently needed, and an effective regimen must be established for patients with clear cell/mucinous adenocarcinoma. The main strategy for recurrent ovarian cancer is to find the gene related to drug resistance, then treat the cancer based on its molecular biology.