Medical News:Combo Promising for Resistant Ovarian Cancer - in Meeting Coverage, SGO from MedPage Today
"....The between-group difference increased to 4 months in the subgroup of patients whose lesions had imaging-confirmed folate-receptor expression.
Overall survival did not differ between the groups, due in part to an unusually prolonged survival in the control arm, R. Wendel Naumann, MD, said here at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting.
"This is the first clinical trial that has shown a benefit in progression-free survival over standardized therapy in a randomized trial in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and we think it's pretty exciting," said Naumann, of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C.
"We know that EC20 scanning identifies patients who will benefit most from the combination of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin and vintafolide, as well as those who will not benefit. It appears that patients in whom all lesions are folate-receptor positive benefit the most from this combination."
A phase III randomized trial of PLD plus vintafolide has already begun, he added.............
Action Points
- This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Note that a compound which binds with high affinity to the folate receptor, which is expressed on the majority of epithelial ovarian cancers, and releases a cytotoxic component significantly increased progression-free survival in this phase two study.
