Pill buys more time for cancer victims

A “milestone” pill treatment that holds back ovarian cancer and has the potential to prolong life has been launched in the UK.

Niraparib is a PARP inhibitor belonging to a new class of drugs that target cancers with defective DNA repair systems.

Trial results have shown the once-daily pill can buy valuable months of time before the disease returns after chemotherapy. In some women, the time to relapse was increased from five-and-a-half to 21 months compared with chemotherapy alone.