Combination therapy halts disease progression nine months more in recurrent ovarian cancer

Jane Robertson, MD, Global Product Vice 
President for olaparib at AstraZeneca, 
describes the mechanism of action of 
olaparib. YouTube

CANCER DIGEST – June 2, 2014 – Advances in treating recurrent ovarian cancer are usually marked in weeks or a month or two. So a study showing disease progression halted by an additional nine months is capturing attention at this week’s annual meeting of the Association of Clinical Oncologists in Chicago. In a Dana Farber Cancer Cancer Institute study, 90 women with recurrent ovarian cancer received a targeted therapy, called olaparib, or olaparib with another targeted therapy called cediranib. Almost half (48 percent) of those who received the single drug treatment had their tumors shrink and had the cancer held in check for an average of nine months. By comparison 80 percent of those in the combination treatment group had their tumors shrink and it took an average of 18 months before the cancer resumed progression. Targeted therapies act on specific proteins or genes of the tumor resulting in milder side effects than typically occurs with chemotherapy. 

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