‘Milestone’ pill that can halt the spread of ovarian cancer

Drug licensed for use in the UK can ‘freeze’ tumours

DAILY pills that halt the spread of ovarian cancer have been licensed for use in the UK, in a step greeted as a ‘critical milestone’ for thousands of women.

The drug freezes tumours for months at a time, halting relapse and giving women a crucial break from relentless rounds of gruelling chemotherapy.

It has now been licensed by the European Medicines Agency, allowing it to go on sale privately from today, while the Scottish Medicines Consortium watchdog will consider it for the NHS this spring.

Ovarian cancer, known as a ‘silent killer’ because it has few symptoms until too late, affects about 570 women in Scotland every year, killing more than 350. Roughly 85 per cent of patients experience recurrence after their first treatment, meaning they often face repeated bouts of chemotherapy to keep the disease under control.

The new drug, two or three pills taken together once a day, buys valuable months of normality before the disease returns and the next chemotherapy round begins.

A similar drug, called olaparib, was made available on the NHS two years ago – but was restricted to women with the BRCA gene mutation, famously carried by Angelina Jolie.

But niraparib will be available to all ovarian cancer patients who relapse, after a major clinical trial showed they could all benefit from the treatment.

Niraparib is one of a group of drugs called PARP inhibitors, developed by researchers in Sheffield, Cambridge and London.

These exploit a weakness in cancer cells – zeroing in on their ‘Achilles’ heel’ to kill a tumour without harming healthy cells.

Previously scientists believed cancers with the BRCA gene mutation were the only ones with this weakness. But researchers found the chink in the cancer’s armour exists in all tumours – although the weakness is bigger in BRCA-mutated cancers.

In women with an inherited BRCA gene mutation, the time to relapse was increased from 5.5 months to 21 months compared with chemotherapy alone.

Niraparib also helps women without a BRCA mutation, increasing the time before recurrence

‘Available as quickly as possible’

from 3.9 months to 9.3 months.

A Scottish Medicines Consortium spokesman said: ‘SMC has received a submission for this medicine and expects to issue advice to NHS Scotland in spring 2018.’

Professor Jonathan Ledermann from University College London,

‘This could be life-changing’

who was involved in the trial, said: ‘This represents a critical milestone in the management of ovarian cancer.

‘Access to effective and tolerable medicines is sorely needed and the hope is that niraparib will be available on the NHS as quickly as possible.’

Niraparib will be sold under the brand name Zejula at about £80 a pill – £58,661 a year for the 200mg daily dose or £86,786 for the 300mg dose.

It will also be examined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for use on the NHS in England.

Katherine Taylor, chief executive of the charity Ovarian Cancer Action, said: ‘The outlook for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be bleak. Current treatment lags behind other and better known cancers.

‘Today’s news is an encouraging step but we now need to ensure all UK women diagnosed with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer can benefit.

‘We call upon the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Scottish Medicines Consortium to approve this drug to provide more treatment options for those diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For many women this could be life-changing.’