Drug Benefits Patients with Inherited Ovarian Cancer
19 April 2010 - A new type of cancer drug has shown promising results in patients with ovarian cancer linked to an inherited mutation, a disease for which current treatment options are limited. The trial results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Olaparib is a new type of drug known as a PARP inhibitor that works by turning a tumour’s specific genetic defect against itself.
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital, working with pharmaceutical company KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, now a subsidiary of AstraZeneca, found olaparib shrank or stabilised tumours in around half of ovarian cancer patients bearing BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
Between 2005 and 2008, 50 women with confirmed or suspected BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations began treatment with olaparib in a dose escalation and single-stage expansion of a Phase I trial. Twenty patients responded with their tumours shrinking or with significant falls in their ovarian cancer marker CA125, or both. The disease also stabilised in a further three patients. The drug was effective for an average of seven months, while several patients are still taking olaparib for nearly two years. Side effects were generally mild compared to current chemotherapy treatments.
The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is just 40 per cent so there is an urgent need to find new drugs for women diagnosed with this disease. Most patients initially respond well to radical surgery and platinum and taxane-based chemotherapy, but build up resistance over an average of 18 months.
“Olaparib is still in early-stage testing but the results so far are very encouraging. These findings raise the possibility that carefully selected patients in future may well be offered olaparib as an alternative to chemotherapy during the course of their treatment,” says Professor Stan Kaye.
