Virus Drug Combo Helps To Fight Ovarian Cancer

Researchers have discovered a new treatment that combines a viral infection and chemotherapy to target cancer cells in women with advanced or recurrent ovarian carcinoma.

Now, findings published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research show that combining tumor growth can be reduced when combined with a chemotherapy drug known as doxorubicin, which fights recurrent cancer.

"Our findings suggest that this could be a promising therapy, and we believe it should be further developed for the treatment of recurrent or refractory ovarian cancer in humans," said principal investigator Balveen Kaur of Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release.

Unfortunately, ovarian cancer is often detected when it's in the advanced stages. This reduces survival rates by about 27 percent.Researchers chose doxorubicine as its effect works against recurrent cancer. Furthermore, in animal tests, many found that the virus-drug combination worked to increase survival from 32.5 days to 58 days.

Ovarian cancer is oftentimes detected in advanced stages when survival rates are much lower. Many who also are treated for the health issue must deal with the possibility of reoccurring cancer, which is often attributed to cancer stem-like cells that evade chemotherapy and result in growth of tumor cells that are chemotherapy-resistant.

"This study underscores the significance of combining the oncolytic virus with doxorubicin for patients who have developed resistance to primary chemotherapy," Kaur added.