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Innovative therapies to tackle platinum-resistant ovarian cancer

Combining existing drugs with the targeting of biological features of ovarian tumours could extend life when platinum chemotherapy fails.
  1. Amanda B. Keener

    1. Amanda B. Keener is a science writer in Littleton, Colorado.

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Cartoon of cancer cells using umbrellas to protect themselves from drugs raining down on them

Illustration by Antoine Dore

In the late 1990s, oncologists found a winning combination for treating ovarian cancer. When given alongside a drug, called paclitaxel, that blocks cell division, the platinum-based chemotherapy cisplatin succeeded in shrinking and killing off tumours left after surgery in 70–80% of patients. Since then, this combination has been the treatment of choice for high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common and deadliest form of the disease. “The upfront response rates to these therapies are so high that if you had to pick a single drug, hands down, it would be platinum,” says Anil Sood, a gynaecological oncologist and researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

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Nature 600, S45-S47 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03718-6

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Ovarian cancer, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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