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Experts applauded a ‘quantum leap’ for women with ovarian cancer because a breakthrough treatment was given the go-ahead yesterday.
The drug niraparib has been approved for use by regulators in the biggest improvement in thirty years for treating ovarian cancer.
Niraparib can stop the disease for about 12 months, eliminating the need for further chemotherapy and giving women the best quality of life possible. It will be available to women with advanced ovarian cancer from their first round of treatment, which means that approximately 3,000 patients will have access to it each year.
Target Ovarian Cancer, a British charity, described the treatment as an ‘important milestone’ in the fight against the disease.
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Experts have praised a ‘quantum leap’ for women with ovarian cancer because a breakthrough treatment was successful yesterday (Stock Image)
Targeted treatments – supposedly because they exploit specific weaknesses in cancer cells – such as niraparib, are rare in ovarian cancer and only a handful have been approved for use in the NHS.
These treatments were previously only available to women with mutations on specific genes – about 13 percent of all those diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And only patients whose cancer had returned administered it. However, niraparib – which prevents cancer cells from repairing themselves – will be available to all patients who have just been diagnosed with stage three or four ovarian cancers.
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This type of cancer is one of the deadliest and 11 women die every day from the disease.
Two-thirds are diagnosed once the cancer has already spread, making it more difficult to treat and likely to return. Experts have said that niraparib, which is taken as a daily pill, is important because it can help patients with ovarian cancer, who have limited treatment options, survive longer. Research has shown that it significantly prolongs the time it takes for the disease to return.
Annwen Jones of Target Ovarian Cancer said its approval is an “important milestone in the fight against ovarian cancer, which brings hope during a pandemic, where we are concerned about how many women are being diagnosed late.”
He added: “There has not been such a breakthrough drug available to so many since the introduction of Paclitaxel-Taxol chemotherapy in the 1990s.”
Meanwhile, Cary Wakefield of Ovarian Cancer Action said the news points to a ‘quantum leap for women with advanced ovarian cancer’. She added: ‘So far, treatment options have unfortunately been extremely limited. Personalized medicine is now available to thousands of women and it will be life-changing. ‘
The approval, given yesterday by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), will also be repeated 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 is a turning point in advanced treatment of ovarian cancer.”
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