After a woman has undergone a round of ovarian cancer treatments — such as surgery and chemotherapy — her doctor may recommend some form of maintenance therapy, in an effort to delay the time to possible recurrence. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer recurrence is common. About 80% of women diagnosed will go into remission. However, about 70-80% of those women will have a cancer recurrence within the next five years. So while all women who undergo treatment and go into remission should be monitored regularly — maintenance therapy may be recommended as well.
One method of maintenance that has a lot of researchers excited is PARP inhibitors. These drugs work by blocking damaged cells from healing, that’s why they’re used in the "maintenance" period of treatment, after a woman has already undergone chemotherapy and possibly surgery. When used as maintenance therapy, PARP inhibitors can potentially prevent recurrence and prolong remission possibly forever.
Read More- Zejula (niraparib) has been approved by the FDA for all women with newly-diagnosed ovarian cancer regardless of whether the patient’s tumor is HRD or BRCA positive. The drug is used after successful treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy, the mainstay chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.
- Lynparza (olaparib) is approved for women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer and with a germline or somatic mutation in BRCA1/2.
- Lynparza is also approved in combination with Avastin (bevacizumab) for women with HRD. Avastin is a blood vessel growth inhibitor, which works by starving the tumor of vital nutrients needed to grow.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.