Cushing's Drug Fights Aggressive Ovarian Cancer

Relacorilant, a medication initially developed for Cushing's syndrome, is showing significant promise in improving outcomes for patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. This aggressive form of the disease progresses rapidly after platinum-based chemotherapy, leaving patients with limited treatment choices and a grim prognosis.

A clinical trial involving 381 patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer demonstrated that those treated with relacorilant experienced a 35% reduction in their risk of death. Over an average follow-up of two years, patients in the relacorilant group lived approximately four months longer than those receiving standard care.

These findings support relacorilant as a potential new standard treatment. In a separate trial, pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, also showed benefits when added to usual care, increasing average survival to 17.7 months compared to 14 months with usual care alone. While both trials are in Phase 3 and require further UK testing, relacorilant and pembrolizumab have already received U.S. FDA approval for treating this specific ovarian cancer subtype.