OBJECTIVES: Ovarian cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and the prevailing cause of death from gynecological malignancies in the Western world. Platinum resistance continues to be the primary contributor to mortality in ovarian cancer patients. However, effective treatments for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer remains an unmet need and incidence data is lacking. This study aimed at estimating the incidence of ovarian cancer patients in the US, stratified by platinum-resistance, across treatment lines 2 to 4 in 2023

METHODS: A combination of incidence data made available by IARC Global Cancer Observatory and stage data from the literature, was used to estimate the number of US ovarian cancer patients with stage III/IV disease. Treatment data from 1,354 patients in ICON's internal research database, complemented with data on specific treatment options (i.e., PARP and anti PD-1/PD-L1), was then used to derive the proportion of platinum-sensitive and -resistant patients. Subsequently, incidence estimates were derived by multiplying these proportions with the estimated number of incident stage III/IV ovarian cancer patients.

RESULTS: Overall, 14,768 patients with stage III/IV ovarian cancer were estimated in the US in 2023. Out of these, the estimated number of patients treated in each line was 6,224, 4,329 and 2,901 for lines 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The proportion of platinum resistant patients increased from 14.7% in line 2 to 59.1% in line 4.

CONCLUSIONS: By applying an approach based on a mix of proprietary, publicly available, and published data, this study provided an estimate of the numbers of stage III/IV ovarian cancer patients treated by line in 2023 in the US, stratified by platinum sensitivity. The results showed an increase in the proportion of platinum-resistant patients from line 2 to 4.