Important Biomarkers for Cervical and Ovarian Cancers

John Diaz, the chief of Gynecologic Oncology, lead physician for Clinical Trials in Gynecologic Oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, and chief of the Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, Baptist Health South Florida, discusses key targets for cervical cancer and ovarian cancer.

Currently, oncologists have approved antibody-drug conjugates to treat patients with both cervical cancer and ovarian cancer, but many more agents are under development. For example, Diaz explains that a number of folate receptor agonists are being studied.

Earlier in 2023, Diaz gave a presentation on precision medicine at the Inaugural Miami Cancer Institute Precision Medicine Oncology Symposium, and stated, in an interview; “It's important that we maintain an excellent standard of treatment for these women and understand those tools that are available to us. We have to understand how to interpret these reports and ensure that we have the best outcomes for our patients utilizing the latest technologies and novel treatments.”

Diaz also explains that combination therapies will be important in cervical and ovarian cancer going forward. Also, more research is being done to uncover additional receptors for targeted therapies.

Transcript:

0:09 | One of the exciting advances that we've seen in gynecologic cancers is the utilization of antibody-drug conjugates. When I talk to my patients about these drugs, I use the analogy of thinking of them as a Trojan horse. They have now been utilized for both ovarian cancer and cervical cancer, and we have 2 FDA-approved antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of gynecologic malignancies. One of the targets are these folate receptor agonists, and there are several more in the pipeline.

0:40 | It's exciting to see that we have these targeted therapies. We're going to start to have to understand how we use these treatments in patients who have already been exposed to folate receptors. Then, we have to identify additional receptors that we can utilize for these targeted treatments.