Maurie Markman, MD

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine & science at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, addresses different treatment options, including checkpoint inhibitors, for patients with endometrial cancer.

Traditionally in this setting, physicians use platinum chemotherapy, such as paclitaxel, as well as hormone therapy to treat patients. Following the pattern seen in ovarian cancer, there have been no major advances until checkpoint inhibitors, according to Markman.

The first observation for when to use checkpoint inhibitors was whether patients with microsatellite instability (MSI)-high or microsatellite stable (MSS) disease. There was evidence that patients with MSI-high endometrial cancer respond to checkpoint inhibitors and 2 have been approved by the FDA in the second-line setting. These therapies had response rates of 50% to 60%, which Markman says is unheard of. Objective response rates to chemotherapy in this setting are in the 15% to 20% range.

For the patients with MSS disease, which is the majority, the response rates to checkpoint inhibitors has usually been lower. Markman says that similar to the chemotherapy in second line, checkpoint inhibitor responses ranged from 10% to 18% in these patients. However, there were data presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology annual meeting showing that a tyrosine kinase inhibitor combined with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) improved overall survival for patients with MSI-high or MSS endometrial cancer.

Videos

Maurie Markman, MD, addresses different treatment options, including checkpoint inhibitors, for patients with endometrial cancer.

Discussing ICIs in Endometrial Cancer for Cancer Immunotherapy Month

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses how management and treatment strategies in ovarian cancer have influenced other cancers and will continue to do so.

For example, Markman says that the development of platinum-based chemotherapies such as paclitaxel started in ovarian cancer. Over time, this development became increasingly important in other cancers and tumor types as well.

Five years ago, treatments from ovarian cancer were not being used in areas such as lung cancer, but currently, these effective chemotherapies, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies are being used in a number of cancer types for chronic management, Markman adds.

Maurie Markman, MD, discusses how management and treatment strategies in ovarian cancer have influenced other cancers and will continue to do so.

Ovarian Cancer Management Influences Other Cancer Types

Maurie Markman, MD, president of Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses how the ovarian cancer treatment paradigm has evolved over the past 30 years.

Treatment has evolved from acute management over a short period of time to using far more precise and less toxic therapies over many years. The disease still remains fatal in a majority of patients, but the overall survival has transformed from 1 to 2 years to 3 to 6 years.

The Evolution of the Ovarian Cancer Treatment Paradigm

Maurie Markman, MD, President of Medicine and Science at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses where he sees the field of ovarian cancer and other gynecologic cancers headed in the future, based on the research shared at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Markman says the focus now is on targeted therapies, precision medicine, and immunotherapy. When he completed his own medical training years ago, he went right to the National Cancer Institute to the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology because he believed the immune system would play a vital role in cancer research. However, he was still a few decades ahead of his time.

Now it is evident that the immune system plays a significant role in controlling and potentially curing cancers, Markman says. With the use of checkpoint inhibitors, immune modulators, and CAR T cells, research is now just beginning to understand the complex role of the immune system.

Outlook on the Future of Ovarian and Other Gynecologic Cancers

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses valuable endpoints beyond overall survival (OS) that can be used in ovarian cancer clinical trials.

Valuable Endpoints Beyond OS in Ovarian Cancer

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses overall survival as an endpoint in ovarian cancer.

Maurie Markman, MD | Authors

Articles

Discussing ICIs in Endometrial Cancer for Cancer Immunotherapy Month

Ovarian Cancer Management Influences Other Cancer Types

The Evolution of the Ovarian Cancer Treatment Paradigm

Outlook on the Future of Ovarian and Other Gynecologic Cancers

Valuable Endpoints Beyond OS in Ovarian Cancer

Challenging Overall Survival as an Endpoint in Ovarian Cancer