Introduction: moving beyond chemotherapy

Epithelial ovarian cancer and related cancers arising in extrauterine Mullerian epithelium are generally chemosensitive—particularly to the platinum drugs, cisplatin and carboplatin, that form the backbone of first-line treatments upon diagnosis even at early stages. Doublets of platinums with paclitaxel have represented the standard-of-care since the late 1990s, with further notable advances taking place by intraperitoneal administration (in Gynecologic Oncology Group studies) after optimal surgical cytoreduction is achieved, and by divided doses of paclitaxel (in a Japanese GOG study). Adding another agent to improve on these results has otherwise proven to be quite challenging. Nevertheless, continued forays into introducing ‘targeted therapies’ are beginning to bear fruit, and form part of this Translational Cancer Research (TCR) supplement. The purpose of this supplement is to provide a summary of the advances in tumor biology and a glimpse into where targeted therapeutics are moving, and their successes to date.