In a placebo-controlled, phase 2 study, olaparib, an oral PARP inhibitor that should be effective in tumor cells with BRCA1/2-related base excision repair defects, increased progression-free survival from 4 months to 8 months in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer.

In patients with ovarian cancer and thrombocytosis, tumors may express interleukin-6, which stimulates production of thrombopoietin. The increase in platelets is associated with more rapid disease progression. Therapies that lower platelet counts may enhance antitumor effects of other agents.

Primitive cancers have so-called hot-spot mutations in DICER1 that alter the function of DICER1, an enzyme that processes microRNA. Some of these cancers harbor a loss-of-function mutation in the other DICER1 allele, suggesting a new mutational mechanism of oncogenesis.

The addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy (15 mg/kg for six cycles) followed by extended therapy with bevacizumab every 3 weeks for a total of 15 months of treatment improved progression-free survival by 4 months in incompletely resected stage III or IV ovarian cancer.

Incorporating bevacizumab in a chemotherapy regimen (7.5 mg/kg every 3 weeks for five or six cycles) and then continuing bevacizumab alone for a total of 12 months of treatment extended progression-free survival in advanced and high-risk early-stage ovarian cancer.

In this study of ovarian clear-cell or endometrioid tumors, nearly half the samples had mutations in the ARID1A gene, which encodes a component of the SWI–SNF chromatin remodeling complex. Alterations in gene expression associated with abnormal chromatin remodeling may be linked with cancer.

In this randomized trial, standard primary debulking surgery followed by chemotherapy was compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by debulking surgery in women with bulky stage IIIC or IV ovarian cancer. Starting treatment with chemotherapy allowed more patients to undergo optimal tumor debulking during the subsequent operation. However, the outcomes were the same regardless of the timing of the debulking operation. Primary chemotherapy is an option in the management of bulky ovarian cancer.

In this single-group study involving women with grade 3 vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia associated with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16), vaccination against HPV-16 infection with a peptide vaccine was related to a clinical response in 15 of 19 patients (79%) at 1 year. This clinical response was associated with induction of HPV-16–specific T cells.