Corcept Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company specialising in cortisol-modulating medications, has announced that its relacorilant plus nab-paclitaxel combination treatment has shown positive results in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
The results were shown in the phase 3 ROSELLA trial. The trial found that patients receiving the combination treatment had a 35% reduction in risk of death compared with the group receiving only nab-paclitaxel. Patients receiving combination treatment had a median overall survival (OS) of 16 months, while those receiving nab-paclitaxel alone had a median OS of 11.9 months.
The combination was found to have a favourable tolerability and safety profile, with comparable numbers of adverse events between the combination and monotherapy arms of the study.
This data builds on Corcept’s previous announcement of improved progression-free survival (PFS) rates in the ROSELLA trial. The trial found that patients treated with the combination therapy had a 30% reduction in risk of disease progression.
Complete results from the ROSELLA trial are expected to be presented at an upcoming medical meeting.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of deaths from cancer in women. Many patients see their disease become either sensitive or resistant to platinum-containing chemotherapy, leaving them with limited therapeutic options. Each year, in the US, around 20,000 women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and 13,000 women with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer are candidates to begin new treatments, with the number of women in Europe equaling or exceeding this.
Alexander B Olawaiye, director of gynaecological cancer research at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh and principal investigator in the ROSELLA trial, said: “ROSELLA’s findings compel us to evaluate relacorilant as a treatment for earlier stages of ovarian cancer and for other tumours that express the glucocorticoid receptor, such as endometrial and cervical cancer.”
Corcept is working to build a pipeline of cortisol-modulating treatments for severe endocrinologic, oncologic, metabolic and neurologic diseases.
