Future Focus: Ovarian Cancer in 2018 and Beyond

Oliver Dorigo, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, talks about the direction of research in the ovarian cancer field going into 2018 and beyond. He shares his excitement about trials that will further investigate the efficacy of PARP inhibitors, and focus on immunotherapy. He speaks with enthusiasm about the potential to “engineer immunity” by taking a person’s T-cells and redirecting them against tumor tissue.

Dorigo emphasizes the need for better diagnostic tools to detect ovarian cancer. “The survival rate in Stage 1 ovarian cancer, those cancers confined to the ovary, is over 90 percent,” he said. “If we can find technologies that allow us to find those ovarian cancers early on, I think we will make a huge step forward.”