A trial looking at erlotinib after standard treatment for ovarian cancer (OV07/EORTC 55041)

The trial team found that having erlotinib after the standard treatment for ovarian cancer didn’t help to stop it coming back.

This was an international phase 3 trial. It was a randomised trial. Everyone had the standard treatment before they were randomly put into 1 of 2 groups. The 2 groups were those who had erlotinib after standard treatment and those who didn’t.

Of the 835 women recruited, the researchers were able to look at the results of 831.

The researchers used 2 methods to see if the cancer had started to grow again. The first was an increase in a substance, called CA125 , in the blood. The second was measuring the cancer on a scan.

The researchers monitored the women for an average of just over 4 years. For women who had an increase in their CA125, they found that

• 8 out of every 100 (8%) had erlotinib
• 11 out of every 100 (11%) didn’t have erlotinib

For those women whose cancer was bigger on a scan

• 33 out of every 100 (33%) had erlotinib
• 31 out of every 100 (31%) didn’t have erlotinib

For those women who had an increase in their CA125 and their scan showed their cancer was getting bigger

• 7 out of every 100 (7%) had erlotinib
• 6 out of every 100 (6%) didn’t have erlotinib

The worst side effects reported from those having erlotinib were diarrhoea and a skin rash. Of the women who had erlotinib, 25 out of every 100 (25%) stopped taking it because of the side effects.

The trial team concluded that having erlotinib after standard treatment didn’t delay or stop ovarian cancer coming back.  

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) but may not have been published in a medical journal.  The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.