Dr. Kristeleit on the Efficacy of Rucaparib in Ovarian Cancer

Rebecca Kristeleit, BSc, PhD, consultant medical oncologist, University College-London Cancer Institute, discusses the efficacy of rucaparib in the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

According to the results of an analysis of 2 phase II trials presented at the 2016 ESMO Congress, the majority of heavily pretreated patients with high-grade ovarian cancer and germline or somatic BRCA mutations showed a durable response to rucaparib.

Kristeleit explains that the radiological cutoff for identifying which patients "respond" is determined by tumor shrinkage of at least 30%. However, she says, there were still patients in this analysis whose tumors shrunk by approximately 28% or 29%, and while they do not necessarily meet the specified cutoff, it is important to note that these individuals are still benefiting from the treatment in a significant way.

Moreover, at 6 months, 79% of patients were progression-free, according to Kristeleit. At 12 months, that number was still over 40%, and at nearly 2 years, approximately 10% of women still had not progressed. This is exciting data, particularly for this heavily pretreated, relatively platinum-sensitive patient population.