title: Immunotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer: a further piece of the puzzle or a striking strategy?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Treatment of ovarian cancer has been long standardized with the inclusion of surgery and chemotherapy based on platinum and taxanes, this strategy reaching high remission rates. However, when this treatment fails, further options are available with little benefit. Since ovarian cancer has specific immunologic features, actually immunotherapy is under evaluation to overcome treatment failure in patients experiencing recurrence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunogenicity of ovarian cancer and its relationship with clinical outcomes is briefly reviewed. The kinds of immunotherapeutic strategies are summarized. The clinical trials investigating immunotherapy in recurrent ovarian cancer patients are reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of these clinical trials about immunotherapy are interesting, but little clinical benefit has been achieved until now. For this reason, we could conclude that immunotherapy is quite different from other treatment options and it could change the global approach for recurrent ovarian cancer treatment. However, to date only fragmentary findings are available to define the real role of immunotherapy in this setting.
authors: University of Palermo, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Stomatological Sciences, Section of Medical Oncology , Via del Vespro 129 - 90127 Palermo , Italy +39 091 6552500 ; +39 091 6554529 ; antonio.russo@usa.net.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Bronte
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Cicero
authors: Giovanni
authors: G
authors: Sortino
authors: Gianfranco
authors: G
authors: Pernice
authors: Maria Teresa
authors: MT
authors: Catarella
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: D'Alia
authors: Stefania
authors: S
authors: Cusenza
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Lo Dico
authors: Enrico
authors: E
authors: Bronte
authors: Delia
authors: D
authors: Sprini
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Midiri
authors: Alberto
authors: A
authors: Firenze
authors: Eugenio
authors: E
authors: Fiorentino
authors: Viviana
authors: V
authors: Bazan
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Rolfo
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Russo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D017211:Treatment Failure