Emerging strategies for targeting PI3K in gynecologic cancer

- Ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers share activation of the PI3K pathway
- PI3K pathway inhibitors have shown promise in the pre-clinical and clinical setting
- Current clinical trials pair PI3K pathway inhibitors with other therapies to maximize response

Ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers are the most prevalent gynecologic cancers in the United States and account for significant mortality. Translational research into these cancers has highlighted the distinctive molecular and genomic profiles of these cancers finding that, even within a disease site, the landscapes and drivers of neoplasia are distinctive. Despite this molecular diversity, activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway appears to be conserved in subsets of these tumors, suggesting that strategies that antagonize mediators in this signaling cascade could offer anti-tumor efficacy. Extensive pre-clinical and clinical data have demonstrated that single agent targeted therapies lead to modest single agent activity of generally limited duration, even in the setting of innate PI3K pathway activation via mutation or amplification. These findings in the laboratory and clinic have prompted investigations into resistance pathways following PI3K pathway inhibition in order to understand escape pathways and restore tumor cell sensitivity. A next generation of clinical trial investigations will focus on novel combinations in order to define how these important therapeutics can be used in the clinic. This review will present preclinical data that supports the role of the PI3K pathway in ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers, in addition to discussing the reported clinical trial experience with PI3K pathway inhibition. A specific focus will be on the rationale behind ongoing clinical trials utilizing novel agents in concert with PI3K pathway inhibitors to reverse resistance in populations with and without gain of function alterations in this oncogenic signaling cascade.