Drug cocktail offers hope for ovarian disease

A COCKTAIL of two drugs could offer twice as many women suffering with a rare form of ovarian cancer hope of treatment, according to a study.

Currently, only 26 per cent of women diagnosed with low-grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC) will respond to the best available treatment.

However, a study from Royal Marsden Hospital’s cancer experts has found that a course of two drugs together has a response rate of 45 per cent. It is hoped that the discovery will double the number of patients who can be treated for the disease.

LGSOC is an uncommon form of the condition and makes up about one in ten of all ovarian cancer cases.

About 700 women will be diagnosed with LGSOC every year in the UK and it is more likely to affect younger women than other forms of ovarian cancer.

The global study, presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago, had three parts and involved 121 patients. A total of 59 were enrolled in the branch of the phase two clinical trial dedicated to assessing the drug cocktail’s effectiveness, with 29 getting the experimental pairing.

The new treatment involves administering avutometinib and defactinib, both of which are designed to stop cancer cells growing. However, avutometinib has previously been shown to have a success rate on its own of just 10 per cent as the cancer evolves resistance and circumvents the drug.

However, pairing it with defactinib, which is known to stop cancers from gaining such resistance, was four times as effective as avutometinib alone, and twice as effective as the current best treatment option, a drug called trametinib.

Six in ten patients on the drug who also have a mutation in a gene called KRAS responded to the drug dyad. Three in ten of those without the mutation also had tumour shrinkage, an improvement on existing options.