A pivotal clinical trial has revealed that a drug originally used to treat a rare disease can prolong the lives of women with aggressive ovarian cancer, with fewer side effects compared to current treatments.
The drug, called relacorilant, is usually prescribed for patients with Cushing's syndrome (a condition caused by high levels of the hormone cortisol in the body).
In the trial, the drug proved significantly more effective than existing treatments, extending patients' lives by 35% and giving them precious extra time with their loved ones. Another advantage is that it can be taken at home and has fewer side effects than current ovarian cancer treatments.
Patients diagnosed with what is known as platinum-resistant ovarian cancer live, on average, only about one year after diagnosis. A patient is classified as having this type of cancer if their disease progresses within six months of receiving this treatment. This type of cancer is difficult to treat and often incurable.
In the trial, which was presented during the annual conference of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology in San Juan and also published in the medical journal The Lancet, researchers analyzed data from 381 patients.
They found that women who took the drug "Relacurilant" along with the chemotherapy drug "nab-paclitaxel" lived an average of 16 months, compared to only 11.9 months for those who received "nab-paclitaxel" alone. That's a difference of more than 4 months.
The researchers wrote in The Lancet that these results represent a 35% reduction in the risk of death from any cause, and make this treatment combination a new standard option for patients.
Dr. Domenica Lorusso, director of the gynecologic oncology unit at Humanitas Hospital in Milan and a researcher involved in the trial, says that this data clearly demonstrates the ability of this combination to prolong overall survival and disease progression-free survival in patients, adding that these tumors eventually become resistant to chemotherapy, and providing this new option to oncologists could greatly benefit patients.
