Immuno-oncology for Gynecologic Malignancies

Patients with advanced and/or recurrent gynecologic cancers derive limited benefit from currently available cytotoxic and targeted therapies. Successes of immunotherapy in other difficult-to-treat malignancies such as metastatic melanoma and advanced lung cancer have led to intense interest in clinical testing of these treatments in patients with gynecologic cancers. Currently, in the realm of gynecologic oncology, the FDA-approved use of immune checkpoint inhibitors is limited to microsatellite instable cancers and PD-L1-positive cervical cancer. However, there has been an exponential growth of clinical trials testing immunotherapy approaches, both alone and in combination with chemotherapy and/or targeted agents, in patients with gynecologic cancers. This chapter reviews some of the major reported and ongoing immunotherapy clinical trials in patients with endometrial, cervical, and epithelial ovarian cancer.