Dr. Coleman on the Safety Profile of Veliparib in Ovarian Cancer

Robert L. Coleman, MD, FACOG, FACS, professor and Ann Rife Cox Chair in Gynecology, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the safety profile of veliparib examined in the VELIA trial looking at patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

PARP inhibitors are associated with the class adverse events (AEs) of nausea, vomiting, and taste changes, explains Coleman. To some extent, these AEs were seen in the VELIA trial, which compared the frontline combination of veliparib and chemotherapy followed by maintenance veliparib versus placebo/chemotherapy followed by placebo maintenance, says Coleman.

In patients who received chemotherapy, an acceleration of toxicity was not seen, but a class effect of this drug was noted, according to Coleman. There were no new toxicities and there was no augmentation of the myelosuppressive toxicities seen with chemotherapy, concludes Coleman.