Correspondence: Clinical Trials of Palliative Chemotherapy in Platinum-Resistant or Refractory Ovarian Cancer: Time to Think Differently?

Blogger's Note: worth reading; the language and clinical issue of the term 'chronic' as it applies to ovarian cancer has long been debated between ovarian cancer survivors/advocates and professionals, therefore, this noteworthy comment as highlighted (read the paper for full context); more importantly, Cary Vera-Garcia wrote an excellent article which was published in the Journal of Gynecologic Oncology addressing 'chronic' (as an ovarian cancer survivor) with a subsequent professional rebuttal published thereafter (Cary is no longer with us); Cary's publication was one of the first to be published on ovarian cancer as a chronic disease in ovarian cancer (to my knowledge)

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JCO

"Platinum-resistant or -refractory ovarian cancer can hardly be
called a chronic cancer......"

TO THE EDITOR:

Wewere interested to read the recent editorial by
Spriggs entitled, “Drug Development for Chronic Cancers: Time to
Think Differently,”1 which accompanied the report by Colombo et al2
of a randomized phase III trial that compared patupilone to liposomal
doxorubicin (PLD) in 829 patients with platinum-resistant
or -refractory ovarian cancer. The primary end point of the study was
overall survival (OS). There was no difference in patient outcomes
between the two treatments. The median progression-free survival
(PFS) was 3.7 months in both arms, and theOSwas 13.2 months in the
patupilone arm and 12.7 months in the PLD arm. Twenty percent of
patients in the experimental arm discontinued treatment because of
toxicity..........