• T de La Motte Rouge, M-C Petrella, J Michels, C Even, C Balleyguier, J Duclos, R Mazeron, P Morice, P Pautier, and C Lhommé.
• Institut Gustave-Roussy, Comité de gynécologie, Villejuif, France.
• Bull Cancer. 2009 Dec 1; 96 (12): 1215-24.

AbstractOvarian cancers are the leading cause of death from gynaecological malignancies in Western countries. Despite optimal treatment combining surgery and chemotherapy, relapse is observed in the majority of patients. This review aims to present the results of trials having evaluated new drugs in ovarian cancers. Advances in the understanding of cancer biology and more specifically of cell signalling pathways have led to the identification of several potential molecular targets and to the development of new agents directed against these targets. The assessment of targeted therapies is relatively recent in this field. So far, only the results of phase II trials have been published, but many phase III trials are underway. Some targets (HER-2, EGFR) initially regarded as promising have already been abandoned due to the lack of results. The most advanced molecular therapies target angiogenesis (VEGF, VEFGR). PARP and mTOR inhibitors may also represent a significant therapeutic improvement. It remains to confirm the interest of these new approaches by assessing the benefit on overall survival. The goal remains to individualize and to tailor the drugs to the tumour biology, in order to provide personalized treatment to each patient.

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