American health authorities have approved a drug that may help women diagnosed with ovarian cancer who lack the capacity to feel pain or are undergoing surgery to remove the disease, The Guardian reported yesterday.
Mehdi Durrant, chief executive of Relate Therapeutics Inc. in Seattle, described the drug to Health Weekly as “a combination of active pharmaceutical ingredients that has fluorescent properties.”
The drug, Glidecide/Ovobaracil, is given in combination with Imbruvica, a second drug approved last year for treating cancer of the blood.
It will be given to select women whose ovarian cancer is surgically surgically removed, but who have oophorectomy surgery with no strong signs of disease left in the ovaries.
Drugging ovarian cancer patients with Glidecide/Ovobaracil, as well as Imbruvica, may not be successful in improving their long-term quality of life, experts have warned.
For specialists who use Imbruvica, Glidecide is an “unnecessary add-on. Use of Glidecide/Ovobaracil is not curative,” Dr. Ali Hassan, an ovarian oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told The Guardian.
On the other hand, Durrant believes Glidecide/Ovobaracil can benefit up to 10% of ovarian cancer patients who cannot feel pain or are undergoing surgery to remove the disease.
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration must give final approval for new drugs, and that has yet to happen for Glidecide/Ovobaracil.