Catherin Watson, MD, Assesses the Future of Genetic Testing in Ovarian Cancer

CancerNetwork® spoke with Catherine Watson, MD, an assistant professor of gynecologic oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, at The Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer about creating larger studies focused on genetic testing for different populations of patients with ovarian cancer.

At the meeting, Watson presented results of a trial showing that streamlined vs traditional education for genetic testing produced similar outcomes and may offer an alternative that broadens its use overall.

Transcript:

A lot of people in the country have already moved to a point of care model just for logistic reasons. It’s easier and they want to get these women tested. This can add a level of comfort knowing that this is safe for patients as well. It’s not having a negative psychological impact on their patients. Larger studies would be helpful. Due to the COVID pandemic, we weren’t able to adequately power this to make it a noninferiority study, so we can say that these outcomes are the same or there’s no difference but it’s not a true noninferiority study.

Reference

Watson C. Prospective, randomized trial of streamlined genetic education and testing for patients with high grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian and peritoneal cancer. Presented at: The Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer; March 18-21, 2022; Phoenix, AZ.