Immunotherapies, Antibody Drug Conjugants Among Advances in Endometrial Cancer Treatment Options

While the majority of endometrial cancer cases are diagnosed early and patients have an excellent prognosis, those diagnosed with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer often face a worse prognosis and their treatment can be more difficult.

New treatments combining single-agent treatment with immune checkpoint blockade drugs have shown a positive response in patients who have either mismatch repair deficient or proficient endometrial cancer, says Katherine Mager, MD, FACOG, a gynecologic oncologist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. In another study, the combination of immunotherapy after up-front chemotherapy for patients with both mismatch repair proficient and deficient disease had an increase in progression-free survival and overall survival. A third study found progression-free survival in patients treated with immunotherapy regimes, with potential benefit from adding a PARP inhibitor for patients with mismatch repair proficient disease.

“We are extremely excited about all these new developments and are actively offering these to our patients,” Dr. Mager says. “We are running clinical trials looking at targeted therapies and the use of immunotherapies in endometrial cancer and have some very exciting trials ongoing and to be opened. Given the rapidly changing landscape of treatment for endometrial cancer, it’s important patients are evaluated early for introduction of these therapies and, in the setting of recurrent cancer, there are a lot of options available.”