ICR researchers say lung and ovarian cancer trials have shown promise

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, have undertaken trials of the drug combination vistusertib and paclitaxel for patients with advanced lung or ovarian cancer, where no other treatment has been successful, including chemotherapy. So far the trials have shown positive results with the tumours in 52% of the ovarian cancer patients and 35% of the lung cancer patients reducing in size by at least 30%, and the prevention of the cancer growing for an average of 5.8 months. Side-effects of the combination were said to be manageable.
An ICR press release stated: “This far exceeds what is expected with standard treatments in patients with advanced disease who have already had, and have now become resistant to, standard treatment”.
The Institute of Cancer Research CEO, Professor Paul Workman, said: “Drug combinations hold huge promise for tackling cancer’s adaptation, evolution and drug resistance, just as they have in other areas of medicine such as HIV. But it is essential that we choose which drug combinations to test out in trials rationally based on our scientific understanding of what will work. This study is a perfect example of a rational drug combination, selected because of scientific observations made here at the ICR that resistant ovarian cancer cells seemed to rely on a particular protein for their survival after chemotherapy.”