Efficacy of trabectedin in platinum-sensitive-relapsed ovarian cancer: new data from the randomized OVA-301 study

The results of the OVA-301 study show that trabectedin in combination with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) results in improved progression-free survival and response rate in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The trial has also demonstrated a trend toward improvement in overall survival. A subgroup analysis indicates that in the subset of patients with platinum-free interval (PFI) of 6 to 12 months, the combined treatment resulted in a 6-month improvement in overall survival. Furthermore, in the patients who have received third-line treatment with a platinum agent, it was found that the survival was better in those who had received trabectedin and PLD. These results suggest that prolonging the PFI by a nonplatinum-effective regimen improves the outcome with subsequent, third-line platinum treatment. This strategy may also have positive effects in treatment tolerability, as it allows extra time to recover from platinum-induced toxicities. This hypothesis is currently been tested in the INOVATYON (INternational OVArian Cancer Patients Trial With YONdelis) phase III study.