‘Beacon of hope’: New ovarian cancer drug improves survival rates, Utah doctors say

Bob Garretson pours beverages for dinner while chatting with his wife Jane Garretson at home in Midway on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. Jane Garretson participated the VELIA ovarian cancer clinical trial. The results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

2 Huntsman Cancer Institute patients tell their stories about clinical trial that doctor calls ‘practice changing’

SALT LAKE CITY — Jane Garretson went to her doctor for a routine visit in late 2016 to get a prescription renewed. But she soon received sobering news: She had stage 3 ovarian cancer.

The mother of two and grandmother of five from Cincinnati, along with her husband, decided to stay in Utah, their favorite vacation spot, while she received treatment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

And then hope came along in the form of a clinical trial.

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 22,530 will receive an ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2019. Meanwhile, 13,980 women will die from the disease.

“Because ovarian cancer doesn’t get the attention that breast cancer does, I think anything we can do to bring that to light and add to treatment for women, is a huge plus,” Garretson, of Midway, recalled Monday. “Because, like so many women who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I was very asymptomatic.”

That’s why she chose to participate in a worldwide study testing a new drug that targets the ovarian cancer cells, called the PARP inhibitor veliparib. The Huntsman Cancer Institute — with 20 patients — was one of more than 200 hospitals worldwide that played a role.

Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Jane Garretson poses for a photo with her dog Bo at home in Midway on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. Garretson participated the VELIA ovarian cancer clinical trial. The results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

On Saturday, the study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The medication, used in combination with standard chemotherapy, significantly improved survival rates and halted cancer progression, researchers said.

Dr. Theresa Werner, Huntsman oncologist and the institute’s principal investigator on the study, said the medication targets and kills certain cancer cells in those with newly diagnosed cancer, by making the cells more sensitive.

Certain cancer cells, including the majority of ovarian cancer cells, are “exquisitely sensitive to this medication, I would say,” Werner explained.

The medication worked so well, especially for some, because between 10% and 15% of people with ovarian cancer harbor an inherited mutation called a BRCA mutation. The mutation increases the risk of certain kinds of cancers — especially breast and ovarian — by causing a loss of the gene that repairs tumors, according to the doctor.

Doctors at the University of Utah actually helped discover the genetic mutation, Werner said.

While the medication had the strongest positive effect on those with the mutation, Werner said it worked for those whose cancer cells only had the mutation, and those who did not have the mutation at all.

“It’s way more applicable than people thought,” Werner said.

On average, those in the group of women with the BRCA mutation went 34.7 months without disease progression — almost three years on average — compared to 22 months for the women who received a placebo.

During the trial, the participants received pills — either the medication itself or a placebo — while undergoing chemotherapy and after their chemotherapy for maintenance “to see if we could prolong their remission,” Werner said.

Patients at Huntsman are continuing with follow-up visits at Huntsman “and they’ve had no evidence of recurrence so far,” the doctor said.

For participant Karen Edson, of Salt Lake City, “I was so happy to be a part of the study. I don’t know if I had any side effects from the drugs, because I was having side effects from the chemotherapy.”

“But to be on the study, it gave me hope, and it gave me hope that I was doing everything possible to defeat the cancer. And Dr. Werner and her team were incredibly compassionate and helpful during the treatment. And I also wanted to feel that I was doing something bigger than myself to contribute in some way to fighting this disease of cancer. And I kind of looked at it as, it takes a village of trials to combat the cancer and I was happy to do my small part,” Edson recalled.

The retired nurse said that when she received her diagnosis right before a long-planned trip to Butan, India, her experience in the health care field left her with the feeling her prognosis wasn’t good. It was her second time fighting cancer — five years before, she overcame breast cancer.

But along with help from doctors, she said she received support from her family, who “helped me look forward instead of backward, and how lucky every single day is.”

Candy ginger and Cheetos helped her through treatment, Edson said. “And now I hate both of them.”

Though she lives with pain in her feet, a symptom of chemotherapy, Edson says, “I really look at every day as a wonderful gift.”

Garretson agreed with the importance of remaining optimistic for those facing cancer diagnoses.

“Attitude is extremely important as well. And so whether one was facing chemo, or surgery, or being offered an opportunity for a clinical trial, I think having an attitude of this is going to work and this is going to be helpful to me is a positive as well.”

Werner called the study’s findings “practice changing.”

“A lot of times we do these trials, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting. They did a little better with that drug,’ and people still maybe use it. But this trial is going to change the way we take care of women who have what we call advanced stage, stage 3 or 4, ovarian cancer in the sense that there is a treatment option now available,” Werner said.

She said the drug should soon be presented to the FDA for approval. “The hope is that these results will expedite its availability to the public.”

Because the results were so “practice changing,” the approval could come in weeks to months.

Garretson, a retired guidance and substance abuse counselor, said that in addition to the benefit of receiving prolonged care, being part of the trial was a “wonderful way to give back.”

“And for this drug to be available now, to me, is just an additional beacon of hope,” she said.

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