New treatment targets ovarian cancer

A new method of injecting drugs into the womb could save the lives of hundreds of British women suffering from ovarian cancer every year.

A team at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry is carrying out a joint trial with Canadian experts which they hope will increase survival rates by 20 per cent.

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most deadly cancer in women in the UK. More than 6,000 women a year are diagnosed and of them 4,000 die.

Early studies into the new form of chemotherapy — called intraperitoneal — have revealed benefits. But take-up has been limited partly because women have found the treatment uncomfortable. Now researchers have dramatically improved their techniques.

The trial is being aimed at women with small deposits of tumour left after surgery. All the women taking part will have been newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer and have an initial short course of standard chemotherapy followed by surgery.

Half will receive the remainder of their chemotherapy into the vein as usual and the others will have the drugs injected into their abdominal cavity via a catheter.
Unlike other cancers, the disease rarely spreads to other parts of the body but dominates the abdominal cavity.

Dr Chris Gallagher who is heading the UK trial, said: "By giving the treatment directly into the area where the cancer is located we have the potential to expose the tumour to much higher concentrations of the drug."

A total of 150 women from 10 UK and 10 Canadian centres are taking part in the initial phase of the study which is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute of Canada. The aim is to expand it to 850 women.