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Experts hailed a “quantum leap” for women with ovarian cancer, as an innovative treatment received the green light yesterday.
The drug niraparib has been approved for use by regulators in the biggest improvement in 30 years for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
Niraparib can stop the disease for about 12 months, delaying the need for more chemotherapy and allowing women to have the best quality of life possible. It will be available to women with advanced ovarian cancer since the first round of treatment, which means that about 3,000 patients will have access to it every year.
Target Ovarian Cancer, a UK charity, described the treatment as an “important milestone” in the fight against the disease.
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Experts hailed a “quantum leap” for women with ovarian cancer, as innovative treatment received authorization yesterday (stock image)
Targeted treatments – so called because they exploit specific weaknesses in cancer cells – like niraparib, are rare in ovarian cancer and only a few have been approved for use in the NHS.
These treatments were previously available only to women with mutations in specific genes – approximately 13 percent of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And only patients whose cancer had returned were managed. However, niraparib – which prevents cancer cells from repairing – will be available to all newly diagnosed patients with stage three or four ovarian cancer.
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This type of cancer is one of the most lethal and 11 women die every day from the disease.
Two-thirds are diagnosed as soon as the cancer has spread, making treatment more difficult and likely to return. Experts said niraparib, which is taken as a daily pill, is significant because it can help patients with ovarian cancer, who have limited treatment options, to survive longer. The research showed that it significantly extended the time needed for the disease to return.
Annwen Jones, of Target Ovarian Cancer, said her approval is “an important milestone in the fight against ovarian cancer, bringing hope during a pandemic in which we have concerns about how many women are being diagnosed late.”
He added: ‘We haven’t had such an innovative drug available to so many since the introduction of paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug – Taxol – in the 1990s.’
Meanwhile, Cary Wakefield of Ovarian Cancer Action said that the news marks a “quantum leap for women with advanced ovarian cancer”. She added: ‘So far, treatment options have been extremely limited. Personalized medicine is now available to thousands of women and it will change your life. ‘
The approval, granted yesterday by the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Care (NICE), will also be replicated in Wales and Northern Ireland.
A verdict on the drug in Scotland is expected later this year.
Professor Jonathan Ledermann, director of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘The decision marks a turning point in the advanced treatment of ovarian cancer.’
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