Khaberni - Researchers said that an experimental drug added to a conventional chemotherapy treatment succeeded in improving the survival chances of patients with reproductive cancer.
The study included 30 women with ovarian cancer who had stopped responding to platinum-based first-line chemotherapy drugs, with elevated levels of a cancer-associated protein in the blood known as CA-125.
All patients included in the study received standard treatment with the drug Gemcitabine, while half also received a drug called Elinagen, manufactured by Cure Lab Oncology, administered as a muscle injection once a week.
The results showed that patients who received Elinagen lived significantly longer; the average survival was over 25 months, compared to about 13 months for those who received only Gemcitabine.
Researchers stated in a release that "several patients lived longer than expected in these types of cases."
The study also concluded that adding the drug Elinagen reduced the death risk by about 60 percent.
The study leader, Dr. Sergei Krasnyi from the N.N. Alexandrov National Cancer Center in Minsk, the capital of Belarus said, "What stands out in these results is not just the increase in survival period, but achieving this without additional toxic effects and without the need for a particular biomarker."
Elinagen includes a protein known as p62/SQSTM1, which is believed to reduce chronic inflammation and stimulate an immune response that helps the body attack tumors.
Krasnyi added that the effect of the drug suggests the viability of a "radically different therapeutic approach, supporting the body biologically instead of just intensifying chemotherapy."
The duration of treatment ranged from less than a month to over 30 months, and researchers found that longer continued drug use was strongly associated with a longer survival period after its discontinuation.
The company said it plans to conduct larger trials in the United States.
The details of the trial were published in the International Journal of Women's Cancer, and the results are scheduled to be presented on February 27th during the meeting of the European Society for Women's Cancer in Copenhagen.
