In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Janos L. Tanyi to discuss intraoperative imaging with OTL38 in ovarian cancer. Dr. Tanyi is an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of Pennsylvania. He developed an advanced immunotherapy program that allows patients’ own immune cells to recognize and kill their tumor; a gene-engineered T cell approach. Dr. Tanyi has a broad background in immunotherapy, cancer immunology, molecular genetics and clinical expertise in gynecologic oncology. He has the frontline experience in ovarian cancer immunotherapy as he is the primary PI for both the ovarian cancer vaccine and adoptive T cell transfer trials at University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he has fostered the establishment of a rich translational research environment focused on ovarian cancer. Furthermore, Dr. Tanyi led the Phase 2 and 3 trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of Pafolacianine Sodium combined with intraoperative molecular imaging during cytoreductive surgery of ovarian cancer.

Highlights:

- It is well known that the extent of residual disease after surgery is negatively correlated with patient survival in ovarian cancer. To achieve R0 complete cytoreduction remains the goal of surgery. In this phase III study, it was evaluated whether Cytalux, would identify cancer lesions not identified by the surgeon by white light visual inspection or palpation.

- During this phase 3 trial, one or more additional cancer lesions were identified in approximately 33% of patients using of Cytalux with near-infrared imaging which was not detected by white light visual inspection and manual palpation.

- The intraoperative use of Cytalux with near-infrared imaging can be a good adjunct to current surgical approaches in identifying additional cancer lesions during cytoreductive surgery.