Prediction of therapy response in ovarian cancer: Where are we now?

Abstract

Therapy resistance is a major challenge in the management of ovarian cancer (OC). Advances in detection and new technology validation have led to the emergence of biomarkers that can predict responses to available therapies. It is important to identify predictive biomarkers to select resistant and sensitive patients in order to reduce important toxicities, to reduce costs and to increase survival. The discovery of predictive and prognostic biomarkers for monitoring therapy is a developing field and provides promising perspectives in the era of personalized medicine. This review article will discuss the biology of OC with a focus on targetable pathways; current therapies; mechanisms of resistance; predictive biomarkers for chemotherapy, antiangiogenic and DNA-targeted therapies, and optimal cytoreductive surgery; and the emergence of liquid biopsy using recent studies from the Medline database and ClinicalTrials.gov.

Keywords:

• Ovarian cancer
• therapy
• resistance
• predictive biomarkers

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank: Dr. Anisha Gokarna (Nanophotonics group, Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique, Université de Technologie de Troyes, France) who assisted in the proof-reading of the article and Hind Kadiri (PhD student, Cifre UTT – SILSEF, Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique, Institut Charles Delaunay - UMR CNRS 6279, Université de technologie de Troyes, France) for her constant encouragement.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.