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YOUR HEALTH: Stopping cancer's recurrence

PARP inhibitors stop cancer cells from being repaired and causes the cancer cells to die

MIRAMAR, Fla. — More than 20,000 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. 

For women who beat the cancer the first time, more than 70% will have a recurrence

Now clinical trials have shown a new medication is revealing promising results for delaying recurrence.

55-year old Gilda Michel is now cancer-free because of it.

Her story started after she lost a lot of weight, then noticing something didn't seem quite right.

"My stomach was not getting any smaller and was also hurting a lot."

She got a CT scan and...

"They said I had tumors on my ovaries."

It was stage three ovarian cancer. 

She had surgery, 21 sessions of chemotherapy, and 25 rounds of radiation to get rid of the cancer.

"A few years ago, was that you gave a patient intravenous chemotherapy, usually typically six cycles, and then you sit and wait," explained Gynecologic Oncologist Dr. Emery Salom.

Patients can be proactive against recurrence by getting maintenance therapy with PARP inhibitors right after finishing their first round of chemo.

"PARP inhibitors are a new class of medications in which they're antibody mediated to block a specific function in the repair mechanism of cells," said Dr. Salom.

PARP inhibitors stop cancer cells from being repaired, which ultimately causes the cancer cells to die. 

Studies have shown that patients on PARP inhibitors have had recurrence delayed.

"The response rate in a subset of women is significant to delay the time to recurrence for more than a year," said Dr. Salom.

For Gilda, whose cancer is now gone and has been on the PARP inhibitors for six months, that's great news.

"It makes me happy that there's something there that can help you."

The patients who did the best on PARP inhibitors were the ones who had the BRAC-1 or BRAC-2 mutations. 

PARP inhibitors should not be given to patients who have had side effects from chemotherapy in which their blood counts are low or those who have had previous parp inhibitors for another disease.

Clinical Trials

Following the results of the SOLO-1 trial, maintenance PARP inhibitors have become the standard of care for patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer; however, more survival data is needed in order to confirm their potentially curative benefit. 

Initial data from the SOLO-1 trial indicates that patients with advanced BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer who received Olaparib medication for their maintenance treatment (Lynparza) following platinum-based chemotherapy experienced a 70% reduction in the risk of progression or death versus those who received placebo. 

Data from a single five-year follow-up reveals an average progression-free survival (PFS) of 56 months in the Olaparib maintenance arm versus 13.8 months in the placebo arm. 

Ongoing trials are examining the agents, seen within the success from the PARP inhibitors, in several novel combination with either chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapies like HDAC inhibitors, TKI inhibitors, and monoclonal antibodies.

If this story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Jim Mertens at jim.mertens@wqad.com or Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com.

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