Other New Targets

Abstract

Despite improvements in surgical and diagnostic techniques, the outcome for women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer remains poor. Recent developments in the understanding of cancer biology have led to an explosion in clinical trials using targeted agents. In women with epithelial ovarian cancer, antiangiogenic agents have led the field. There are, however, other novel targets and agents undergoing evaluation. This review focuses on some of these newer approaches to targeted therapy highlighting the importance of trial design and incorporation of biomarkers as we move forward into the era of personalized medicine.

Hippo Pathway Effector Yap Is an Ovarian Cancer Oncogene

“…Though our sample size is modest and our analysis needs to be confirmed in a larger patient population, Yap distribution appears to be a very strong predictor of survival from ovarian cancer. Even if further analysis reveals that the hazard ratio for nY/cpY Category 3 is at the low end of our 95% confidence interval, (2.1–28.9), this would be on par with EGF and Her-2/neu, which are currently targeted in clinical trials for ovarian cancer treatments (22, 23). Further, Yap activation results in several cancer-associated phenotypes while reduction of Yap resulted only in increased sensitivity to chemotherapy, indicating that therapies targeting Yap could affect multiple cancer processes with minimal deleterious effects.…”