Current and emerging treatment options in the management of advanced ovarian cancer

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Recent advances in understanding the biology and its molecular and histological diversity have led to mechanism based therapeutic strategies such as poly-ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARP) targeting homologous recombination deficient tumor cells and anti-angiogenic therapies. Clinical trial designs in ovarian cancer have to evolve to incorporate assessment of the genomic complexity and identify predictive biomarkers to improve precision of treatment and outcome.Areas covered: This review summarizes present-day strategies used in the management of ovarian cancer and novel promising therapeutic approaches in development. The article is based on English peer-reviewed articles located on MEDLINE and related abstracts presented at major international meetings.Expert opinion: Two types of molecular targeted therapies, anti-angiogenics and PARP inhibitors, have been shown to be active in randomized clinical trials and...