Site Editor
Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
Posted: Monday, December 1, 2025
The addition of weekly dose-dense paclitaxel to first-line systemic therapy with every-3-week bevacizumab plus carboplatin led to both improved progression-free and overall survival in comparison with every-3-week paclitaxel, carboplatin, and bevacizumab in patients with high-risk stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer. Andrew R. Clamp, MD, PhD, of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, United Kingdom, presented the final overall survival analysis of the phase III ICON8B trial during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2025 (Abstract 1064O), noting that this new combination could be considered a standard-of-care option in this patient population.
The study enrolled patients with high-risk stage III or IV epithelial ovarian cancer and randomly assigned them to one of three treatment arms: standard therapy of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and bevacizumab every 3 weeks; every-3-week carboplatin plus dose-dense weekly paclitaxel; or every-3-week carboplatin plus dose-dense weekly paclitaxel and every-3-week bevacizumab. Patients were administered up to six cycles of chemotherapy and 18 cycles of bevacizumab. Previous results from the trial showed an improvement in the median progression-free survival with the dose-dense weekly paclitaxel in combination with carboplatin and bevacizumab every 3 weeks vs the control arm (22.2 vs 16.7 months; hazard ratio [HR] = 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.62–0.90; P = .002).
After a median follow-up of 72.0 months, the median overall survival in the dose-dense weekly paclitaxel plus every-3-week carboplatin and bevacizumab arm was 49.8 months (95% CI = 43.7–54.5) as compared with 39.6 months (95% CI = 34.7–45.0) in the standard therapy arm (HR = 0.79; 95% CI = 0.65–0.95; P = .010).
In patients receiving primary chemotherapy, the median overall survival was 47.3 months (95% CI = 42.0–52.6) with dose-dense weekly paclitaxel plus every-3-week carboplatin and bevacizumab vs 37.1 months (95% CI = 32.3–42.1) with standard therapy.
The study authors noted that further research is required to determine whether the combination regimen’s efficacy is impacted by homologous recombination deficiency as well as chemosensitivity.
Disclosure: Funding for the study was provided by the Cancer Research UK and Medical Research Council. For disclosures from the study authors, visit oncologypro.esmo.org.
JNCCN Spotlights
