
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
Please note - this trial is no longer recruiting patients. We hope to add results when they are available.
This trial is looking at a new drug called MK-1775 alongside paclitaxel and carboplatin for ovarian cancer that has come back.
Doctors usually treat ovarian cancer with surgery. You may also have chemotherapy. Paclitaxel and carboplatin are 2 of the chemotherapy drugs that doctors often use to treat ovarian cancer.
Unfortunately, ovarian cancer can come back after surgery and chemotherapy. If this happens, you may have more chemotherapy. But researchers are looking for ways to improve treatment for ovarian cancer that has come back. In this trial, they are looking at a drug called MK-1775 alongside chemotherapy.
MK-1775 is a type of biological therapy. It is a cancer growth blocker. It stops signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow.
Some cancer cells have a particular change (a ) to a
called p53. The p53 gene is involved in controlling how cells divide and grow. If the gene is changed, it doesn’t control cell growth in the same way and allows certain cancers to grow.
The women taking part in this trial have tumours that have a particular mutation to the p53 gene. They also have cancer that responded to treatment with . This is called platinum sensitive ovarian cancer.
The aims of the trial are to
You may be able to enter this trial if you
To be able to take part in this trial, the researchers must be able to test a sample of your cancer to see if it has a particular change to the p53 gene.
You cannot enter this trial if you
This phase 2 trial will recruit 119 women. It is a randomised trial. The people taking part are put into treatment groups by a computer. Neither you nor your doctor will be able to decide which group you are in. And neither of you will know which group you are in. This is called a double blind trial.
Half the women taking part have paclitaxel, carboplatin and MK-1775. The other half have paclitaxel, carboplatin and a dummy drug ().
You have paclitaxel and carboplatin through a drip into a vein once every 3 weeks. Each 3 week period is called a cycle of treatment. MK-1775 (and the dummy drug) is a capsule that you swallow. You take them 5 times in each cycle of treatment. You keep a diary at home to note down exactly when you take the capsules.
As long as you don’t have bad side effects, you can have up to 6 cycles of treatment.
You see the trial team and have some tests before you start treatment. The tests include
The trial team will get a sample of tissue that was removed when you had surgery or a . If there isn’t a sample available, you will need to have a new biopsy. This is to see if the cancer cells have a changed P53 gene.
During treatment, you go to hospital once a week. You have regular blood tests. You have a CT or MRI scan every 6 weeks.
When you finish treatment, you see the trial team a month later and have a physical examination and blood tests. You then see them and have a CT or MRI scan every 6 weeks or every 3 months, depending on how your cancer responded to treatment. Your doctor will explain this to you.
As MK-1775 is a new drug, there may be side effects we don’t know about yet. In other trials, the most common side effects have been
We have more information about the side effects of paclitaxel and carboplatin in our cancer drugs section.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Susie Banerjee
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
Merck, Sharp & Dohme
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.