Biologicals in the upfront treatment of ovarian cancer: focus on bevacizumab and poly (adp-ribose) polymerase inhibitors.

Biologicals have made a major impact in the management of several cancers, but have hitherto had a negligible impact in ovarian cancer. Fortunately, ovarian cancer has been much more sensitive to cytotoxic chemotherapy than many cancers, so treatments were still available. However, improvements are required as more than 80% of patients who present with advanced ovarian cancer eventually will die as a result of their disease. The antiangiogenic antibody bevacizumab and the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib have recently been shown to improve progression-free survival of patients with ovarian cancer with better hazard ratios in certain groups than have been seen previously.