好色先生 Study Shows Combination Therapy May Potentially Improve Ovarian Cancer Patient Outcomes
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 28, 2021) 鈥 A new study from researchers demonstrates a combination of two drugs may be useful to treat ovarian cancers that are resistant to paclitaxel.
Recently published in , the study demonstrates the combination of paclitaxel and lapatinib is synergistic, or when used together, the combined effect is better than expected; which may be a promising treatment strategy for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecologic malignancy, with 1 in 70 women affected during their lifetime and with a five-year survival rate of less than 50%. Individuals with recurrent disease commonly receive paclitaxel, although only 20-30% benefit. The lack of response to paclitaxel is multifactorial, but one big reason is overexpression of ABCB1, a protein that essentially pumps drugs like paclitaxel out of cancer cells. This results in paclitaxel being eliminated from the body and unable to kill the cancer cells.
The team of researchers, led by Jill Kolesar, Pharm.D., professor in the and administrative director of Markey鈥檚 , demonstrated that inhibitors of ABCB1 in combination with paclitaxel were able to kill cancer cells that had previously been resistant to paclitaxel. The medications tested in this study, lapatinib and poziotinib, have both been previously shown to inhibit ABCB1 activity, though this study was the first to demonstrate activity in ovarian cancer.
鈥淭his combination may benefit patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who have received paclitaxel as their first line of treatment,鈥 Kolesar said. 鈥淢ore than 14,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and the majority will have a recurrence, so developing effective treatment strategies is critical.鈥
Kolesar鈥檚 research led to the development of an at the Markey Cancer Center for patients with who have recurred after platinum based chemotherapy.
"We are excited to evaluate another innovative treatment option for our patients with ovarian cancer, particularly since the combination of lapatinib and paclitaxel was discovered by Dr. Kolesar and team in one of our collaborative Markey Cancer Center labs," said Frederick Ueland, M.D., chief of gynecologic oncology and director of clinical operations at the 好色先生 Markey Cancer Center.
