Altering the course of Ovarian cancer with emerging therapies in the horizon

Many players such as Immunogen, On Target Laboratories, ImmunoVaccine Technologies, OncoQuest, Precigen, and some others are involved in developing therapies to accelerate the Ovarian Cancer Market.

Cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke are the leading contributors of the mortality worldwide, estimated WHO in 2015. Moreover, the prevalence of the diseases and global burden healthcare caused are also set to spur in the near future. Newly diagnosed cases of cancer are set to increase by 2030, jumping to 22 million mark, especially increasing the burden in the middle- and low-income countries.

Out of all the cancers, Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common form of cancer and the eighth leading cause of deaths in women in the world. In 2018, there were approximately 22,240 new cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed and 14,070 ovarian cancer deaths in the US. Ovarian cancer can be of three types based on the location of the tumor, namely epithelial, accounting for 90% of cases, germ cell (3%), and sexcord-stromal (2%). Epithelial Ovarian cancers are further subdivided into serous (52%), endometrioid (10%), mucinous (6%), and clear cell (6%) tumors.

Even with the availability of advanced medical and healthcare devices, the exact cause of the disease remains unclear; however, several associated risk factors such as women’s reproductive life, family history, and others are accounted for significant contributors to the lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer.  

Going by the numbers presented by the American Cancer Society Ovarian cancer accounts for just 2.5% of all female cancer cases, but 5% of cancer deaths occur because of the disease’s low survival. Recognized as the most lethal gynaecological malignancy; Ovarian cancer is predominantly a disease of older, postmenopausal women with the majority (>80%) of cases being diagnosed in women over 50 years, and usually is detected at advanced stages in 75% of the patients, due to no appearance of no obvious symptoms, thus earned the tag of being a silent killer.

According to Boring CC, et al., survival rates of women diagnosed ta early stages range from 70-90% whereas the percentage is way too depressing approximately 20-30% in case of advanced stages of ovarian cancer. Patients with ovarian cancer have no obvious or specific symptoms that could be considered for its prognosis. General symptoms range from abdominal pain, meteorism, irregular bowel routine, sudden weight loss, abdominal swelling, and other nonspecific complaints that make the diagnosis of ovarian cancer hard.

After the patient is diagnosed with Ovarian cancer, the treatments are given according to the stage of cancer. There are several ways of treating ovarian cancer, depending on its type and stage.

The goal of the Ovarian cancer treatment regimen is to target and kill the cancerous cells and eliminate the tumor to prevent its spread to other parts of the body, slow down its progression and diminish the chances of its recurrence. At earlier stages of tumor, surgery is performed to remove the tumor, or by chemotherapy to shirk the tumor and prevent relapse. However, when the cancer is detected at advanced stages, where the tumor has metastasized to other body parts, the aim of the treatment gets confined to treat the symptoms through chemotherapy, hormonal therapies, radiation therapies, targeted drugs or a combination of these therapies as per the need, with the aim to increase the survival rate.

Ovarian cancer treatment market comprises of Chemotherapy drugs such as Cisplatin, carboplatin, and paclitaxel, Antineoplastic agents including liposomal doxorubicin, topotecan, oral etoposide, gemcitabine, docetaxel, and vinorelbine along with ifosfamide, 5-fluorouracil with leucovorin, and altretamine; PARP inhibitors such as Olaparib, rucaparib, and Niraparib; and Cytoprotective Agents such as ifosfamide and cyclophosphamide. Moreover, the ovarian cancer treatment market also constitutes Antiemetics such as Antiemetics, Granisetron and Palonosetron; and Targeted therapies.

Unaddressed unmet needs

The available treatment options might prove to be effective in some cases, but no in all the cases, hence the patients are left distressed with many unmet needs in the Ovarian cancer treatment market. Under available regimens, many patients suffer a relapse or develop recurrent tumors that are resistant or refractory to further therapy. Lack of a standard cure, the inability of current treatment options to improve the quality of life, alter the course of the disease are the major unmet needs prevailing in the Ovarian cancer market. Moreover, the majority of ovarian cancer patients – approximately 80% of patients – suffer from adverse effects such as bone marrow suppression, an increased chance of infection and bleeding, anemia, leucopenia, neutropenia, pulmonary toxicity, and kidney and liver failure, from drug treatments. The low safety profiles of these drugs leave a great deal of scope for new technologies without these adverse effects to capture a significant share of the market. Hence, there is a need for better, novel and next-generation therapy options in the ovarian cancer market.

To redress the existing issues, currently, there are many possible new treatment options emerging from recent clinical trials, based both on the modifications of standard approaches and on the addition of new biological drugs to the standard treatment.

In the pipeline

Many players such as Immunogen, On Target Laboratories, ImmunoVaccine Technologies, OncoQuest, Precigen, and some others are involved in developing therapies for Ovarian Cancer. The launch of potential emerging therapies such as OTL38 (On Target Laboratories), 2X-121 (Oncology Venture), PX-Survivac (ImmunoVaccine Technologies), Oregovomab (OncoQuest), HPN536 (Harpoon Therapeutics), Mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853, Immunogen) and PRGN-3005 UltraCAR-T (Precigen) are expected to change the treatment landscape during the forecast period.

Owing to the launch of upcoming therapies in addition to improvement in the diagnosis methodologies, rising awareness of the diseases, incremental healthcare spending across the world, the dynamics of Ovarian Cancer market is anticipated to change by 2030.