Results from a clinical trial show that a new immunotherapy treatment, when added to standard chemotherapy, significantly prolongs survival in women with recurrent ovarian cancer.

The randomised phase II trial compared overall survival of women who received chemotherapy with and without immunotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer.

Women treated with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy experienced significantly prolonged survival.

The treatment is referred to as dendritic cell-based immunotherapy.

It uses the patient’s own immune system to combat cancer and offers long-lasting antitumor immunity.

Immunotherapies are one of the newest and most promising treatments for ovarian cancer, which typically is diagnosed at a later stage and subsequently harder to treat.

David Cibula, MD, PhD, a physician with Gynecologic Oncology Centre, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague, presented the results at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s 50th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.

"The most important objective of cancer treatment is to prolong overall survival while maintaining a good quality of life during treatment. A major advantage of this immunotherapy is an excellent safety profile and tolerance by patients thanks to an almost absence of any toxicity,” said Dr Cibula

“There are currently not many other alternatives in clinical development with such promising results,” added Dr Cibula

A larger phase III clinical trial is planned for 2019.

Source: The Society of Gynecologic Oncology