A cancer drug manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline proved in a clinical trial that it can prolong the lives of the ovarian cancer patients whose disease recurred even after the initial treatments.
According to the study presented last Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, the oral drug Votrient- with generic name pazopanib formulated to block tumor growth- may be used as a maintenance drug by ovarian cancer patients after the surgery and chemotherapy.
The researchers conducted a large-scale Phase 3 trial on women with advanced ovarian cancer. The test was successful as it prolonged the lives of the patients without getting their disease worse for an average of 5.6 months.
The American Society estimates that about 22,040 cases of this disease will be reported this year and 14,030 will die in the U.S. Among all cancers, ovarian cancer is the 10th most common cancer and the 5th among the deadliest. About 23.4 percent of the patients diagnosed aged between 65 and 44 but there are those that are less than 20 years old which is 1.2 percent of the cases. The survival rate also varies depending on the stage which can range from 22 up to 91.5 percent on a five-year period. The statistics are available in the website of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, an advocacy organization for ovarian cancer patients.
Dr Andreas du Bois, lead author of the study and a professor of gynecologic oncology at Kliniken Essen Mitte in Essen, Germany, reported in the meeting that the Votrient passed their evaluation and proved that it can control the growth of cancer for those who had undergone initial procedures.
They studied the records of 940 petients who had surgery and minimum of five rounds of chemotherapy and concluded that the drug decelerated the worsening of the disease on up to 17.9 months.
However, there were drawbacks encountered as well as some patients experienced hypertension, diarrhea, and nausea. They are also investigating if the drug has contributed with the death of two patients.
