Radiopharmaceutical Switch Maintenance for Relapsed Ovarian Carcinoma

• Main Authors: Charles A. Kunos, Jacek Capala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Pharmaceuticals
• Subjects: switch maintenance; continuation maintenance; radiopharmaceutical; ovarian cancer; ovarian carcinoma
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/13/10/287

Switch maintenance, or using alternative therapeutic agents that were not administered during a prior course of cancer treatment, has emerged as an active clinical research and regulatory agency-approvable path in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) drug-development sequence. To better inform the design of therapeutic radiopharmaceutical trials, we reviewed academic scholarship discussing the clinical use of maintenance approaches to cancer treatment. Women with advanced-stage primary platinum-refractory or platinum-resistant ovarian carcinoma and their courses of treatment provide context for our discussion. Twenty-four (10%) out of 244 trials for women with ovarian carcinoma fit our search terms for maintenance trials. Five (2%) trials studied radiopharmaceuticals as switch maintenance. In our opinion, radiopharmaceutical switch maintenance merits further testing in prospective trials for women with advanced-stage primary platinum recurrent or refractory ovarian carcinoma.