NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) -- Although ovarian cancer accounts for only 4% of all cancer cases in women, it is one of the most feared diagnoses. Because the symptoms are vague, including stomach discomfort, gas or a distended abdomen, more than 75% of these cancers have spread to other parts of the body by the time they are detected -- and less than half of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer survive for five years or more.
However, an experimental treatment may offer hope to women with ovarian cancer. The new treatment, called "dose intensive three-drug therapy," combines high doses of three drugs currently used to treat ovarian cancer. The therapy increased survival in women with a poor prognosis, reported Dr. Eddie Reed, at an American Medical Association-sponsored media briefing in New York on Tuesday.
"We think this new therapy is very hopeful and we are particularly excited about it," said Reed, chief of the Medical Ovarian Cancer Section at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
In a new study of 60 patients with advanced ovarian cancer -- patients with disease that could not be mostly removed by surgery -- 70% of patients were disease-free almost two years after the new treatment. In general, only 50% of patients are disease free 18 to 19 months after treatment -- and that's with a good initial prognosis.
The women were given a series of three ovarian cancer drugs -- cyclophosphamide, paclitaxel and cisplatin -- followed by an injection of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF), a protein that helps to protect bone marrow. The treatment was given once daily for nine days.
Currently, the experimental treatment is more expensive than standard therapy, about 50% to 100% higher than the normal cost of chemotherapy. And it's only available at the National Cancer Institute or at Harvard University in Boston, according to Reed.
The therapy is so expensive because patients need to take other drugs to prevent side effects, such as problems with kidney or bone marrow function. However, only three patients dropped out of the study because of such side effects, Reed noted.
And Reed said that there is one important thing that women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer can do to help increase their chances of disease-free survival: have their surgery performed by either a gynecologic oncologist or a surgical oncologist.
"When the surgery is done by a specialist, the ovarian cancer patient is more likely to have all of the visible tumor removed during the course of the surgery. There are very specific things that need to be done during the course of surgery," explained Reed. "These specialists are trained to know what to look for and what to do."
