Ovarian cancer in the older patient: where are we now? What to do next?

Non-surgical management of advanced ovarian cancer with maintenance PARP inhibitors

The standard of care for advanced ovarian cancer is cytoreductive surgery followed by a platinum-taxane combination with PARP inhibition as a maintenance strategy. In practice, many advanced ovarian cancer patients are older and are either not candidates for surgery or decline surgical intervention. There are limited data for using PARP inhibitor maintenance in the non-surgical patient population. We describe two cases of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer who received platinum-taxane chemotherapy and declined surgical debulking. They were continued on maintenance PARP inhibitors and have no evidence of disease for over four years.

Ovarian Cancer in the Older Manitoban Population-Treatment Tolerance and Cancer-Related Outcomes: A Manitoba Ovarian Cancer Outcomes (MOCO) Group Study

BACKGROUND

In Canada, individuals with gynecologic reproductive organs (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus) over the age of 70 comprise a large proportion of epithelial ovarian cancer patients. These patients often have co-morbidities, polypharmacy, or decreased functional status that may impact treatment initiation and tolerance. Despite this, there is limited evidence to guide treatment for older patients diagnosed with ovarian epithelial carcinoma.

METHODS

This is a retrospective study with data from Manitoba, Canada. The data were obtained from the Manitoba Ovarian Cancer Database, the Manitoba Cancer Registry, and electronic health records. All individuals with epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer diagnosed between 2009 and 2018 were identified. Patients aged > 70 at the time of diagnosis were included in the study cohort.

RESULTS

Four hundred and forty individuals were included. The majority had advanced stage disease (56%). Moreover, 59% of patients received no chemotherapy. Of the patients who received chemotherapy, 20% received <2 cycles and 21% required a dose reduction due to toxicity. Univariable and multivariable analysis identified advanced stage (p < 0.001), treatment modality (p < 0.001), and advanced age at diagnosis (p < 0.001) with poorer overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrated a high rate of chemotherapy dose reduction and discontinuation in the elderly epithelial ovarian cancer population. Further research is needed to identify risk factors for treatment discontinuation and intolerance in this population.

The role of circRNAs in regulation of drug resistance in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is one of the female reproductive system tumors. Chemotherapy is used for advanced ovarian cancer patients; however, drug resistance is a pivotal cause of chemotherapeutic failure. Hence, it is critical to explore the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance of ovarian cancer cells and to ameliorate chemoresistance. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been identified to critically participate in drug sensitivity in a variety of human cancers, including ovarian cancer. Among ncRNAs, circRNAs sponge miRNAs and prevent miRNAs from regulation of their target mRNAs. CircRNAs can interact with DNA or proteins to modulate gene expression. In this review, we briefly describe the biological functions of circRNAs in the development and progression of ovarian cancer. Moreover, we discuss the underneath regulatory molecular mechanisms of circRNAs on governing drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Furthermore, we mention the novel strategies to overcome drug resistance via targeting circRNAs in ovarian cancer. Due to that circRNAs play a key role in modulation of drug resistance in ovarian cancer, targeting circRNAs could be a novel approach for attenuation of chemoresistance in ovarian cancer.