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A new treatment for advanced or recurrent uterine cancer shows promising results, UZ Leuven announced on Friday. Compared to the control group, patients had a 30 percent lower risk of death or worsening of the disease.
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jvhSource: BELGIAN
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The prognosis for advanced uterine cancer is poor: patients usually relapse within three to four months of first-line chemotherapy and survive on average for less than a year. “Today we can only watch and wait because there is no maintenance treatment,” said Dr. Vicky Makker, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the US.
The aim of the study was to demonstrate an improvement in progression-free survival. Progression-free survival is the length of time that patients live with the disease without it getting worse. It is a commonly used measure to evaluate new cancer treatments.
A total of 263 patients participated in the study in Europe, North America, China and Israel. All had advanced or recurrent uterine cancer, and had previously shown good response to chemotherapy as a first-line treatment. The participants were randomly assigned to the treatment or placebo group.
The treatment, in which the drug selinexor was administered orally, showed good results. The time for patients to relapse was extended. The effect was especially pronounced in patients with a functioning p53 gene: their progression-free survival was on average ten months longer.
The p53 gene normally prevents tumors from developing. In cancer cells, p53 often does not work properly, partly because it is pulled from the cells by transport proteins. The drug selinexor blocks these transporters, allowing p53 to perform its normal anti-tumor function.
“So this is not a curative treatment,” says professor Ignace Vergote, principal researcher and geynecological oncologist at UZ Leuven. “In addition, adverse events were generally manageable with supportive care or dose adjustments.”
The drug’s manufacturer, the company Karypharm, plans to initiate a new placebo-controlled study with selinexor. “We hope that the treatment will be available to all our patients within a few years,” concludes Professor Vergote.
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