Hormone Therapy Extends Lives of Ovarian Cancer Patients

The use of letrozole may also delay need for chemotherapy, study says

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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FRIDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- Hormone therapy that has proved successful against breast cancer may also extend and improve the lives of women with estrogen-sensitive ovarian cancer, a British study suggests.

Letrozole hormone therapy may also be an alternative to chemotherapy for some women with the disease, according the report in the June 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

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"This study demonstrates that some ovarian cancers are responsive to anti-estrogen hormonal therapy, and these cancers, and therefore the patients who would benefit, can be identified," said lead researcher Simon Langdon, a Cancer Research UK scientist and a senior lecturer in cancer research at the University of Edinburgh.

Langdon noted that his team's research has shown that growth of certain ovarian cancers is stimulated by the female hormone estrogen. "These cancers could be identified as those possessing high levels of the estrogen receptor," he said.

For the study, which included 44 women, the researchers used letrozole, which works by limiting production of estrogen in the body. "This treatment then effectively starves the ovarian cancer of estrogen and inhibits growth," Langdon said.

During six months of treatment, 25 percent of the women had no tumor growth, and 33 percent of the women with the greatest estrogen values had a positive response that delayed the use of chemotherapy. "Within the trial, we were able to show that tumors with the highest levels of estrogen receptor were the most likely to respond to treatment," Langdon said.

"This approach provides an addition to chemotherapy for this disease," he added. "It is unlikely to replace chemotherapy but could be used to delay the need for chemotherapy."

The patients most likely to benefit from the therapy can be identified before treatment starts. So, this kind of approach means women can be better targeted and the drug not given to those unlikely to benefit who should receive some other type of treatment, Langdon said.

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