New hope for ovarian cancer patients as NHS greenlights pill and jab combo that slashes death risk by two thirds
Thousands of women with advanced ovarian cancer will soon be offered a tablet that reduces the risk of death by almost two-thirds.
The new treatment, called olaparib, will be given in combination with existing cancer drugs to reduce the risk of tumors returning after surgery.
Experts say the therapy, which will be available to women with a common genetic form of the disease, has been shown in studies to significantly reduce the risk of the cancer returning, and has even cured some patients.
The NHS spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has now approved the pill based on these results.
One patient who has already benefited from olaparib is Florence Wilks, 59, from London, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2010. She was told the drug could give her another two years, although she remains healthy six years later.
About 7,500 women in Britain are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. Because few symptoms occur in the early stages, the disease is usually discovered once the disease has advanced and spread throughout the body. At this point, treatment is unlikely to cure the disease, so doctors look for ways to slow its progression by giving patients vital time with loved ones.
“This is a very important new treatment,” said Prof. Iain McNeish, oncologist at Imperial College London and director of the Ovarian Cancer Action research centre. 'For the past two decades we have relied on surgery and chemotherapy to treat ovarian cancer, but unfortunately a large proportion of patients will relapse and ultimately die from the disease.'
About two-thirds of patients see their disease return, and less than half survive longer than five years.
Prof McNeish added: 'Studies show that for a large group of patients, olaparib can not only delay the recurrence of the cancer by several years, but can cure patients completely, which is very exciting.'
About 7,500 women in Britain are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. Because few symptoms occur in the early stages, the disease is usually discovered once the disease has advanced and spread throughout the body. At this point, treatment is unlikely to cure the disease, so doctors look for ways to slow its progression by giving patients vital time with loved ones.
Around 4,000 Britons die from ovarian cancer every year.
Current NHS treatment for most women typically involves surgery, chemotherapy and then an immunotherapy drug called bevacizumab, given as an injection every three weeks. However, recent research has suggested that adding olaparib could benefit women with certain genetic mutations.
The drug is a PARP inhibitor, which works by blocking a protein that some types of cancer cells depend on to repair themselves. Without this, the cancer cells die. It is administered as a twice-daily pill 12 hours apart.
Historically, it was only offered to women with a faulty BRCA gene linked to cancer – dubbed the 'Jolie gene' after Hollywood star Angelina Jolie discovered she carried the gene. Ovarian cancer killed her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, 56 years old in 2007. BRCA gene mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 and had her ovaries surgically removed two years later. However, nine in ten women with ovarian cancer do not have these gene errors.
New data from last year showed that women with HRD-positive cancer cells – which have difficulty repairing themselves – also benefit from olaparib.
The findings, published by drugmaker AstraZeneca, showed that 65 percent of HRD-positive patients who took olaparib were still alive five years after their treatment started, compared to just 48 percent who did not.
The study concluded that HRD-positive patients taking olaparib were 67 percent less likely to die from cancer compared to those not taking the drug.
Crucially, about half of all women with advanced ovarian cancer have the HRD-positive form. This means that approximately 2,500 patients are eligible for the new treatment every year. These will be patients who have completed chemotherapy and will take olaparib daily while it remains effective alongside their bevacizumab injections.
One patient who has already benefited from olaparib is Florence Wilks, 59, from London, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2010.
“For two years I felt tired and had back pain, but doctors never did the right blood tests and instead attributed my symptoms to stress,” says the former teacher. 'By the time they found it, the cancer had spread to my stomach and I was given 18 months to live.'
Since then, the mother-of-two has undergone chemotherapy four times and surgery twice to remove the cancer. However, it kept coming back.
In 2016, Florence – whose cancer is HRD positive – was enrolled in an olaparib trial. Unlike newly diagnosed patients, she does not use it in addition to another treatment. Although the pills cause some side effects – such as insomnia and fatigue – Florence says she credits the drug with her life.
“I was told it would last me two years, but here I am six years later and my cancer is still in remission,” she says. 'During that time I got the best out of life. I volunteer with Ovarian Cancer Action, paint and spend time with my wonderful children.
'There are currently such poor treatment options for patients with ovarian cancer, so it is extremely important to have a new effective drug.'