Improved overall survival and delayed disease progression influence oncologists in ovarian cancer

Delayed disease progression is one of the greatest unmet needs in the first-line treatment of advanced ovarian cancer (CaO), in addition to median overall survival (MOS), according to Decision Resources Group.

The DecisionBase 2014 report, titled Ovarian Cancer (First-Line Advanced): Oncologists Are Eager for Therapies Extending Overall Survival, also found that MOS and disease progression are key factors that shape surveyed US and European oncologists’ treatment decisions in this patient population. According to interviewed experts and survey data, substantial commercial opportunity exists for therapies that would improve MOS in first-line advanced CaO. Based on early-phase clinical data and the opinions of thought leaders interviewed, the emerging therapies are not expected to offer significant improvements in overall survival, safety and tolerability, or delivery over currently used therapies.

However, interviewed thought leaders anticipate that at least two emerging therapies; Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) PARP inhibitor olaparib, which was granted priority review by the US Food and Drug Administration in April, and Boehringer Ingelheim’s angiogenesis inhibitor Vargatef (nintedanib) will considerably prolong progression-free survival (PFS) in the first-line advanced CaO patients. The anticipated improvements in PFS offered by olaparib and Vargatef over the 2013 sales-leading regimen in this patient population, paclitaxel (Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Taxol and generics) + carboplatin (Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Paraplatin and generics), match the surveyed US payers’ PFS requirements for widespread inclusion on their managed care organizations’ formularies.