University of OK Research Indicates Improved Outcomes for Ovarian Cancer Patients
Posted on: Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 21:00 CST
By Journal Record Staff
Women with advanced ovarian cancer can live longer with aggressive treatment, according to new research conducted at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and other centers nationwide.
The clinical trial involving Oklahoma women evaluated the effectiveness of an aggressive chemotherapy regimen. It combines traditional chemotherapy and intraperitoneal, or IP chemotherapy.
With IP chemotherapy, the cancer-fighting drug is delivered directly to the abdominal cavity by way of a surgically implanted catheter or port, instead of into a vein in the arm, hand or chest.
Results of the clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute appeared in the Jan. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the study, women treated with IP chemotherapy lived 16 to 17 months longer than those who received intravenous chemotherapy alone.
All of the fluid that you put into the abdomen is re-absorbed into the blood stream, said Joan Walker, of the OU Cancer Institute. Walker was principal investigator and co-author of the study.
The cancer-fighting drug gets into the blood stream so that you bathe the entire blood stream with it, but you also get a huge concentration - a 100-fold concentration of the drug bathing the tumor itself, she said.
Walker said the treatment first emerged about 20 years ago but was abandoned by many specialists because of difficulty managing side effects. Still, early research showed promise of improving outcomes. Walker, her colleagues at the OU Cancer Institute and others nationwide decided this aggressive treatment regimen deserved another look.
This clinical trial made us finally determine that we really need to use this therapy, she said. It showed that irrigating the abdomen with a specific cancer-fighting drug results in a marked survival advantage - 16 to 17 months in this study, which is a more than a year of extra time for these patients.
Walker said the success of the treatment begins with the skill of the surgeon. She said it is important to remove as much of the tumor as possible because the less tumor the chemotherapy has to kill, the more likely it will be successful.
The study also points to the need to find ways to better control the side effects related to the aggressive treatment regimen.
The study involved 429 women with ovarian cancer.
Walker said that she is now treating most of her advanced ovarian cancer cases with the IP treatment. Patients are seeing a pretty good quality of life within two to four weeks of therapy.
Walker noted that several new clinical trials are already under way at the OU Cancer Institute and at other centers nationwide aimed at better controlling or potentially eliminating more of the side effects related to IP chemotherapy.
Source: Journal Record - Oklahoma City
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