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An Insight into Targeted Therapy for Ovarian Cancer

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Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects

Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most fatal gynecological malignancies in the world. Poor diagnosis and a lack of prognostic biomarkers have contributed greatly to the high mortality rate of OC. The standard treatment for OC is surgery followed by chemotherapy by a single drug or in combination with one or more drugs. Although this treatment procedure works in most early-stage patients, most women with advanced disease may experience multiple episodes of recurrent disease with gradual shorter disease-free intervals. Another major disadvantage of standard chemotherapy is that the patients often suffer from a plethora of side effects. OC is well known as a highly heterogeneous disease at the molecular level. Therefore, molecular targeted therapy has emerged as a more effective option. At present, FDA-approved PARP inhibitors and anti-VEGF monoclonal antibodies are the most widely used targeted drugs against OC. Other promising therapeutic targets, such as immune checkpoints, folate receptor, p53, PI3K/AKT pathway, and miRNA, are going through phase II and phase III clinical trials at present. Targeted therapies were expected to deliver better outcomes with minimum toxicity. However, just like conventional chemotherapies, targeted therapies also come with their own set of limitations and newly developed resistance mechanisms in OC patients. This chapter highlights studies conducted on the most important pathways for targeted therapies associated with OC in recent times and the major loopholes and the risks associated with each one of them.

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Acknowledgments

Abhishek Chatterjee and Susmita Saha would like to acknowledge the University Grants Commission (UGC) for financial support. Vineet Kumar Mishra acknowledges DBT-RA Program in Biotechnology and Life Sciences for financial support.

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  1. Abhishek Chatterjee and Vineet Kumar Mishra contributed equally as first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Abhishek Chatterjee, Vineet Kumar Mishra, Susmita Saha & Snehasikta Swarnakar

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  1. Abhishek Chatterjee
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  2. Vineet Kumar Mishra
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  3. Susmita Saha
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  4. Snehasikta Swarnakar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Snehasikta Swarnakar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India

    Sajal Chakraborti

Section Editor information

  1. Cellular Stress and Immune Response Laboratory, Centre for Cancer Biology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Nirmal Robinson

  2. Department of Morphofunctional Sciences, "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

    Cornelia Amalinei

  3. Department of Applied Biology, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India

    Amitava Das

  4. Biological Sciences, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad,, UP, India

    Amitava Das

  5. Chettinad Hospital & Research Institute (CHRI), Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Surajit Pathak

  6. Stem Cell Facility, DBT-Centre of Excellence for Stem Cell Research, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Sujata Mohanty

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Chatterjee, A., Mishra, V.K., Saha, S., Swarnakar, S. (2022). An Insight into Targeted Therapy for Ovarian Cancer. In: Chakraborti, S. (eds) Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5422-0_230

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