A trial of olaparib for ovarian cancer that has come back (MOLTO)

Cancer type:

Ovarian cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial looked at a second course of olaparib for women with ovarian cancer that had come back after having had platinum chemotherapy and olaparib. It was for women who had a gene change (mutation Open a glossary item ) in BRCA1 or BRCA2 .

It was open to women whose ovarian cancer is one of the following:

These cancers are treated in the same way, so when we use the term ovarian cancer in this summary, we are referring to all 3.

The trial was open for people to join between 2017 and 2019. The team published the results in 2023.

More about this trial

Ovarian cancer is often treated with platinum chemotherapy Open a glossary item .

After some time, ovarian cancer may start to grow again. This is called recurrence Open a glossary item .

Olaparib is a targeted cancer drug Open a glossary item called a PARP inhibitor. It blocks an enzyme called PARP, which helps damaged cancer cells to repair themselves.

Doctors thought that if they stopped PARP working again, after further platinum chemotherapy, the cancer cells would not be able to repair themselves.

In this trial researchers looked at a second course of olaparib after platinum chemotherapy for ovarian cancer that has recurred.

This was a phase 2 trial. Everyone who took part had a second course of olaparib after they had a course of treatment with a platinum chemotherapy drug.

The main aims of this trial were to find out:

how well a second course of olaparib stops ovarian cancer from coming back (recurring)
about the side effects of a second course

Summary of results

Of the 27 people who started treatment the team were able to look at the results of 19 people.

The number of people who had a 2nd course of treatment with olaparib was 12. Of these, 4 people had treatment for 6 months or more.

The team looked at the median time it took for a sign that the cancer was coming back after these people had started their second course of olaparib. They found that it was just under 9 months (8.7).

They also looked at the median time people lived after treatment. They found it was 2 ½ years (28.6 months).

Side effects

The team looked at whether having a second course of olaparib caused any different or worse side effects. They found that the side effects were the same and they were no worse than the first course of olaparib.

The most common side effects were:

a drop in red blood cells (anaemia)
a drop in white blood cells (neutropenia)
feeling sick
tiredness

We have information about olaparib and its side effects.

Conclusion

The researchers concluded that women with ovarian cancer could have a second course of olaparib without any worse side effects. But that it was only moderately helpful in stopping the cancer coming back.

More detailed information

There is more information about this research in the reference below.

Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Multi-Maintenance Olaparib Therapy in Relapsed, Germline BRCA1/2-Mutant High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (MOLTO): A Phase II Trial
Robert D Morgan and others
Clinical Cancer Research, 2023. Volume 29, issue 14, pages 2602-2011.

Where this information comes from

We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link we list above is active and the article is free and available to view.