Ovarian cancer is the 8e female cancer in frequency but the 4e in terms of death. Indeed, the first symptoms are non-specific, which explains an often late diagnosis of the disease. In addition, tumors are sometimes resistant to current treatments (chemotherapy and hormone therapy), especially in patients with low-grade serous ovarian cancer. Among these women, often young, less than 13% of patients respond to chemotherapy and less than 14% respond to hormone therapy.
At the last Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology, researchers from the London Cancer Institute presented promising trial results of two combination drugs, defanictib and VS-6766, which shrank the tumor in more than 46% of patients in a phase 1 trial. The 24 trial participants were between the ages of 31 and 75. This new treatment also enabled them to live an average of 23 months before their cancer progressed to a more severe stage.
“It is unusual to see such positive clinical responses in phase I clinical trials, which aim to determine the safety of the treatment and establish the dose that can be tolerated without unmanageable side effects”, underline the researchers who are about to launch the phase 2 trial. “If these results are confirmed in larger trials, they represent a significant advance in the treatment of low-grade serous ovarian cancer” said Dr. s at the Institute of Cancer Research in London.
In the United States, the combination of VS6766 and defactinib has already received breakthrough therapy designation from regulators, which aims to accelerate the development and approval of highly promising drugs.
Source :
Drug combination shows promise in treatment-resistant advanced ovarian cancerICR, September 2021
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