Ovarian cancer treatment ‘highly effective’ in trial

(Mimi Launder/ Nursing in Practice) –– A combination of targeted drugs shrunk tumours in half of patients with a rare form of ovarian cancer in an early clinical trial.

The research, led by a team at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RMFT) and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, tested the drugs – called VS-6766 and defactinib – in 25 patients with low-grade serous ovarian cancer.

Overall, 46% of patients saw their tumours shrink significantly in response to the treatment. But this rose to 64% among those who had a mutation in a gene called KRAS – suggesting that tumour profiling could be used to identify patients most likely to benefit from the new drug combination. (…)