NCI Issues Clinical Announcement for Preferred Method of Treatment for Advanced Ovarian Cancer

NCI issued an announcement encouraging treatment with anticancer drugs via two methods, after surgery, for women with advanced ovarian cancer. The combined methods, which deliver drugs into a vein and directly into the abdomen, extend overall survival for women with advanced ovarian cancer by about a year.

The clinical announcement was made with the support of six professional societies and advocacy groups. The announcement coincides with publication in the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of a large clinical trial by Deborah Armstrong, M.D., medical oncologist and an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, Md., and her colleagues in an NCI-supported research network known as the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG). This is the eighth trial evaluating the use of chemotherapy delivered into the abdomen for ovarian cancer. Together, these trials show a significant improvement in survival for women with advanced ovarian cancer.

The two treatment methods are called intravenous, or IV, for chemotherapy delivered into a vein and intraperitoneal, or IP, for chemotherapy delivered into the abdominal, or peritoneal, cavity.

See also: Clinical Announcement