New breakthrough in the treatment of ovarian cancer

Research by British experts has for the first time shown that hormonal therapy is able to prevent the development of ovarian cancer and prolong the patient's life by 3 years. This is the first breakthrough in 20 years.

In this study, British scientists used hormonal (hormone) therapy, namely Letrozole (trade name: Femara), an estrogen-resistant female hormone. This is an oral drug, often used to treat breast cancer.

Prevent the development of cancer, prolong life

Test results show that Letrozole is able to stop ovarian cancer development and help prolong the patient's life by about 3 years.(Photo: Express.co.uk)

According to experts, up to 50% of ovarian cancer cells need to have estrogen to develop - a mechanism similar to that in some breast cancer cases. Therefore, in this trial, the team gave Letrozole oral ovarian cancer patients a daily dose of 1 tablet.

Biologically, previous studies have not evaluated this drug as a potential therapy because it thinks its effect is too small. But in the study, experts selected the trial as 44 patients most sensitive to estrogen and suffering from recurrent cancer after surgery and chemotherapy.

Test results showed that Letrozole removed the supply of estrogen for the cancer, thereby blocking tumor growth in 25% of patients in 6 months of treatment, and helped patients prolong life up to 3 year.

Of the total number of patients tested, 33% may delay the use of chemotherapy. It also reduces the risk of recurrence of ovarian cancer and helps young women with the disease still have a baby in the late stages of the disease.

Another advantage of Letrozole is that it does not cause side effects that are often present in chemotherapy, such as fatigue, hair loss, nausea, temporary infertility, etc.

Ovarian cancer is a very difficult disease to diagnose early, difficult to treat and there are only 40-50% of patients who live after 5 years (Photo: Irishhealth.com)

According to experts, if larger trials have achieved similar results, this treatment will become the latest therapy from the 80s to date to combat ovarian cancer.

Patients in this study are at the end of the disease, so doctors hope to conduct large-scale studies to test the effectiveness of Letrozole in the earlier stages of the disease - that is, potentially the ability to stop the growth of cancer before it gets worse.

Professor Smyth said: 'Our hypothesis is that if we use this hormone-based drug sooner, the drug will be able to slow the recurrence of the disease for a long time. The fact that ovarian cancer often recurs after 2 years in most patients, so slowing the recurrence has a great meaning '.

A new development milestone in the past 20 years

Lead researcher John Smyth, professor of oncology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'This is a very important development milestone. During the past 20 years, although there have been many scientific studies, there are few studies that give us an understanding of the mechanism of ovarian cancer. Meanwhile, this study shows that the addition of hormonal therapy to the treatment strategy will help prolong patients 'lives as well as improve their health status.'

Control of cancer with hormonal therapy opens up a less dangerous treatment for patients (Photo: In The News)

According to Dr. Simon Langdon, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, 'This study provides more understanding of cancer control with hormonal therapy, and opens up a low treatment approach. More dangerous for patients. However, we have to study more about this therapy. '

Ovarian cancer is a disease that is difficult to detect early, difficult to treat and has a proportion of patients who live after 5 years only 40-50%. The disease usually occurs in women after menopause. In the UK, the rate of ovarian cancer is one in 48 women and every year about 7,000 cases of ovarian cancer and 4,400 people die from it.

Annwen Jones, Ovarian Cancer Action Director, said: 'This disease kills 12 women in the UK every day, and the survival rate has not been raised during the last 20 years. last year. This study shows that promising hormonal therapy offers an opportunity to prolong the lives of some patients. We believe that new therapies will help lower ovarian cancer mortality rates. '

This study was conducted with funding from the British Cancer Research Institute and was published in Clinical Cancer Research on June 14, 2007.

Quang Thinh

According to BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, In The News, VNN