Ovarian Tx Improvement

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Anchor lead: A combination therapy improves survival for ovarian cancer, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Ovarian cancer survival is improved using a combination treatment developed in a partnership between two pharmaceutical giants, their recent study showed. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, describes the results.

Nelson: In the group that would have gotten the standard of care the median progression free survival was only about 16 or 17 months, whereas if you look at the women with a BRCA defect most likely to respond half of them got out 37 months   :15

Nelson is optimistic about the treatment.

Nelson: It’s pretty clear this was a benefit, a 41% improvement. The benefits were even greater for women who had ovarian cancer that had defective genes of BRCA1 and BRCA2 and related genes, that matches the results of an earlier trial and so I suspect that this is well on its way to becoming the standard of care.   :20

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.