Antiangiogenic therapy in ovarian cancer – for whom and when?

Tumor angiogenesis appears to be an important process in epithelial ovarian cancer development. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody that can neutralize vascular endothelial growth factor, a promoter of the initiation phase of angiogenesis. First-line chemotherapy in combination with bevacizumab followed by maintenance bevacizumab demonstrated efficacy over chemotherapy alone in two phase III trials (Gynecologic Oncology Group, GOG 218 and ICON7); however, absolute progression-free survival benefit remains modest, with no demonstrated impact on overall survival. The addition of molecularly targeted agents to the treatment of women with recurrent and platinum-sensitive disease has been recently reported in the OCEANS study, which evaluated the benefit of adding bevacizumab to carboplatin and gemcitabine in women with platinum-sensitive recurrent disease. Bevacizumab-based therapy also extended progressionfree survival from 8 to 12 months. However, overall survival was not different between the two arms. In the Gynecologic Oncology Group 213 (GOG 213) trial, women with platinum-sensitive recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer were randomly assigned to medical treatment (carboplatin plus paclitaxel with or without bevacizumab). A significant improvement in progression-free survival (14 versus 10 months, respectively) was observed. A trend towards a significant improvement in overall survival, which was not statistically significant, was reported. In November 14, 2014, based on AURELIA findings, the Food and Drug Administration approved bevacizumab in combination with paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or topotecan, for the treatment of patients with platinum-resistant recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is a primary cancer against which these new agents are being tested. This review will describe the role of angiogenesis inhibitors in epithelial ovarian cancer