"It’s become clear that the PARP inhibitors in general … are active in this disease, and we are just trying to find out the level of activity and … get to the point hopefully where at least one of these agents will be approved for use” in ovarian and related cancers, commented Jonathan S. Berek, MD, of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, Stanford, California.

He noted that shortly before the ASCO Annual Meeting, the manufacturer of olaparib announced that it would not advance the drug into phase III trials. “This actually kind of surprised many of us,” he recalled. “This appears to be an active agent, and we need active agents in this disease.”

The company’s concern stemmed from the lack of a survival benefit in trials thus far, according to Dr. Berek.