Women with uncommon form of ovarian cancer offered hope with new drugs

A new combination of drugs is offering hope to women with a type of ovarian cancer that is very difficult to treat after a successful clinical trial.

Tumours shrank or stopped growing in almost one in three women (31 per cent) with low-grade serous ovarian cancer, which does not respond well to chemotherapy , when taking a combination of avutometinib and defactinib.

The drugs work by blocking signals that encourage cancer cells to grow.

The results in patients who had a mutation in a gene called KRAS were even more promising, with 44 per cent of patients being told their tumour had shrunk.

Experts are so excited by the findings that they hope the treatment will change practice globally for this type of cancer, and offer hope to women with no or few treatment options.

Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is a rare subtype of ovarian cancer, which is more likely to affect younger women and is more resistant to chemotherapy than other types.

Many people are diagnosed when the cancer has spread, and in more than 70 per cent, the cancer comes back even after standard treatment.

Professor Susana Banerjee, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, who is leading the clinical trials, said: “These are significant results from the second phase of this trial.

“The toxicities for patients are much lower, which means side-effects are fewer than with some conventional treatments.

“The combination of avutometinib and defactinib promises a new standard of care for people with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer.”

Prof Banerjee, also from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, added: “We’re now looking to recruit patients for our phase three trial and hope results will continue to show better outcomes for patients.”

The drugs are being developed by biotech company Verastem Oncology.

The study results, shared with the PA news agency, were presented at the International Gynaecologic Cancer Society’s meeting in Dublin.

They showed that in 115 people with low-grade serous ovarian cancer, 31 per cent found their tumours shrank or stopped growing on the drugs, compared with a 10 per cent or under response rate to chemotherapy or hormone therapies.

In the trial, only one in 10 patients quit, meaning most could tolerate the drugs and any side-effects.