Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer
Updated on September 2, 2025
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Immunotherapy — a treatment that uses your body’s immune system to fight cancer — has been a game changer for people with some types of cancer, including lung cancer and melanoma.
Researchers are currently investigating immunotherapy as a potential treatment for ovarian cancer.
Most people with ovarian cancer will discover they have the disease once it’s already spread, or metastasized, to other parts of their body. Standard treatments, including surgery and chemotherapy, are effective, but the cancer frequently returns. Though there is currently limited research to support the effectiveness of immunotherapy for ovarian cancer, it could one day be the standard of care for some people.
How Does Immunotherapy Work?
Your immune system is your body’s defense against infections. It identifies what does and does not belong in the body and attacks foreign substances, such as bacteria and viruses. Cancers are foreign to the body, so they should be recognized by the immune system. But the disease often evades or hijacks the immune system — and flourishes.
The aim of immunotherapy is to boost the natural defenses of your immune system, so it can work more effectively to detect and kill cancer cells.
What Types of Immunotherapy Are Available?
Many types of immunotherapy are available or being studied to treat cancer, including:
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
These therapies block proteins on immune cells called “checkpoints,” which hinder the immune system’s ability to identify and attack cancer. When the checkpoints are turned off, your immune system can better recognize and kill cancer cells.
Some examples of immune checkpoint inhibitors are dostarlimab (Jemperli) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). These medications work to hinder the actions of proteins on cancer cells and T cells (an immune cell). Blocking these proteins, called PD-1 and PD-L1, interferes with cancer cells’ ability to hide and evade the body’s immune system, which helps the immune system locate and attack the cancer cells.
“Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is most commonly used off label to treat [some types of] ovarian cancer,” says Kalyan Banda, MD, an assistant professor of medical oncology at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. “Research has shown that when combined with chemo, it made a difference.” Another checkpoint inhibitor that may be used off label, says Dr. Banda, is nivolumab (Opdivo), which is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for bladder, colorectal, esophageal, and other cancers.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Therapy
With CAR T-cell therapy, special T cells (a type of white blood cell) are removed from your body and modified in a lab. The enhanced cells are then placed back in your body, so they can find, attach to, and kill cancer cells.
CAR T-cell therapies have been effective for treating blood cancers, but they have not yet had similar success with solid tumors, including in ovarian cancer. Researchers are currently investigating methods that combine CAR T-cell treatments with checkpoint inhibitors, chemotherapy, and other therapies to improve safety and effectiveness.
Cytokines
Cytokines are small proteins that carry messages between cells and regulate the growth and activity of immune cells, as well as blood cells that help the body’s inflammatory and immune responses.
When it comes to cytokines and ovarian cancer, the picture is complicated and contradictory. Research shows that certain types of interleukin (IL) and interferon (IFN), which are two kinds of cytokines, can be significant factors in the development of ovarian cancer. For example, some ILs have been found to contribute to tumor growth and the spread of cancer. But other ILs have been identified as potentially useful for early detection or treatment.
Similarly, while certain IFNs may play a role in chemotherapy resistance, others contribute to the effectiveness of radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and other ovarian cancer treatments.
Researchers are currently working to understand the relationship between cytokines and ovarian cancer as they aim to advance the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Vaccines
Cancer vaccines teach T cells to respond to specific tumor antigens (substances that cause an immune response).
OvarianVax, which is being developed by researchers at the University of Oxford in England, works by training the immune system to detect and destroy cells that are likely to develop into ovarian cancer, before they become cancerous. This can potentially save lives, particularly for people who are at high risk of ovarian cancer, including those with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations.
Oncolytic Viruses
With this treatment, doctors give patients modified viruses to infect and kill cancer cells.
Clinical trials studying oncolytic viruses are in the early stages, but the treatment has generally been shown to be safe. That said, research has indicated that these viruses have a modest impact on survival rates for ovarian cancer.
Ongoing trials are also examining whether combining oncolytic viruses with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapies leads to an increase in the effectiveness of these treatments.
Side Effects of Immunotherapy
The side effects (and severity) of immunotherapy vary from one person to another and can depend on the type and dose of therapy you receive, as well as the kind of cancer you have and your general health. Immunotherapy can also cause your immune system to attack healthy cells, which can lead to side effects.
Reactions to immunotherapy include:
- Cough
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Fatigue
- Joint pain
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Skin rash and itching
How Effective Is Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer?
Even though immunotherapy has emerged as a powerful tool for treating various cancers, it has shown limited success in treating ovarian cancer in early and primarily small studies.
For instance, immune checkpoint inhibitors have never achieved better than a 10 to 15 percent response rate for ovarian cancer (meaning only 10 to 15 percent of tumors shrank or disappeared after treatment). But researchers continue to develop strategies to overcome this resistance.
Bottom line: While there is currently no FDA-approved immunotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer, early research and clinical trials have shown that immunotherapies may one day lead to more effective treatments for ovarian cancer and improve the prognosis and survival rates.
Should You Try Immunotherapy?
Here are some questions you might want to ask your doctor to learn more about immunotherapy and whether it might be right for you:
- Am I a candidate for immunotherapy?
- What types of immunotherapy are available for my condition?
- Which immunotherapies are available in clinical trials?
- How might immunotherapy help with the cancer I have?
- What are the possible side effects?
- How much does immunotherapy cost? Will my insurance cover it?
- How long will I need to stay on this treatment?
- How will immunotherapy affect my daily life?
How to Find a Clinical Trial
If you’re interested in immunotherapy, joining a clinical trial may be a good option. These studies may give you the opportunity to receive treatments that aren’t available yet otherwise.
Many trials testing immunotherapy for ovarian cancer are being conducted around the country. You can search for different studies in your area at ClinicalTrials.gov. The Cancer Research Institute also offers a cancer immunotherapy clinical trial finder that will help you identify trials near you.
The Takeaway
- Immunotherapy has significantly improved the treatment and prognosis of some types of cancer. Early ovarian cancer research results have been promising, but there is no proof that immunotherapies are effective for ovarian cancer.
- The different types of immunotherapy for ovarian cancer being investigated in clinical trials and other research include immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T-cell therapy, cytokines, and more.
- While there is currently no FDA-approved immunotherapy for ovarian cancer, early research and clinical trials have shown encouraging results, indicating that it may one day be an effective treatment for ovarian cancer.
Additional reporting by Katherine Lee.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
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- Celia F et al. Finding Ways to Overcome Ovarian Cancer’s Resistance to Immunotherapy. American Association for Cancer Research. September 20, 2024.
- Yang C et al. Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer: Adjuvant, Combination, and Neoadjuvant. Frontiers in Immunology. October 6, 2020.
- Golden D. Comparing Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and CAR T-Cell Therapies. Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy. June 21, 2022.
- Colombo N et al. Engot-Ov65/Keynote-B96: Phase 3, Randomized, Double-Blind Study of Pembrolizumab Versus Placebo Plus Paclitaxel With Optional Bevacizumab for Platinum-Resistant Recurrent Ovarian Cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. June 2022.
- Cutri-French C et al. CAR-T Cell Therapy in Ovarian Cancer: Where Are We Now? Diagnostics. April 16, 2024.
- Fan Z et al. Ovarian Cancer Treatment and Natural Killer Cell-Based Immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology. December 20, 2023.
- Huldani H et al. The Potential Role of Interleukins and Interferons in Ovarian Cancer. Cytokine. November 2023.
- OvarianVax and What You Need to Know About the Ovarian Cancer Vaccine. Ovarian Cancer Action.
- Borella F et al. Oncolytic Viruses in Ovarian Cancer: Where Do We Stand? A Narrative Review. Pathogens. February 3, 2025.
- Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer. American Cancer Society. August 8, 2024.
- Kumar S et al. Limitations and Potential of Immunotherapy in Ovarian Cancer. Frontiers in Immunology. January 8, 2024.
- Questions to Ask About Immunotherapy. Canadian Cancer Society.
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Walter Tsang, MD
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Walter Tsang, MD, is a board-certified medical oncologist, hematologist, and lifestyle medicine specialist. Inspired by the ancient Eastern philosophy of yang sheng ("nourishing li...
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