Epidemiology and treatment patterns of epithelial ovarian cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction: While ovarian cancer (OC) is relatively rare, it remains one of the most fatal cancers. Lack of robust screening methods for eOC lead to detection of most cases at advanced stages, and most patients relapse following initial treatment.

Areas covered: This review summarizes epidemiology and treatment patterns of epithelial ovarian cancer (eOC). MEDLINE, EMBASE, conference proceedings, and the Cochrane Library were searched using key terms and Medical Subject Headings for ovarian cancer, treatment patterns, and epidemiology to identify articles published from 2005–2015.

Expert commentary: To improve early detection, future studies should focus on the identification of biomarkers that can detect asymptomatic disease. Following diagnosis and eventual relapse, response to first-line platinum appears to guide physicians’ choice of subsequent therapies, but we do not understand what patients ultimately receive or its relationship to categories of response to first-line platinum. Improved understanding of later-line treatment patterns, by initial response to platinum, could correlate with overall outcomes among relapsed patients and promote development of more effective treatment guidelines. Novel treatment approaches, such as immunotherapies, would fulfill a need for an effective strategy against advanced stages of OC that results in fewer toxic side effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Epidemiology
• epithelial ovarian cancer
• ovarian cancer
• treatment
• patterns
• prevalence
• incidence

Declaration of interest

T Boulanger and P Jessmon are employed by Truven Health Analytics (an IBM company). W Zhou reports grants from Merck during the conduct of the study. W Zhou is a Merck employee, and owns company stocks. PD Patwardhan reports grants from Merck during the conduct of the study. PD Patwardhan is also a Merck employee. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

Merck & Co commissioned and funded this work from Truven Health Analytics.