After a woman with ovarian cancer is treated with surgery and chemotherapy — if she responds to that initial chemotherapy, she is a candidate to use PARP inhibitors as maintenance treatment.
PARP inhibitors are targeted therapies that come in pill form. While PARP inhibitors can be beneficial for many women with ovarian cancer, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone should take them. Dr. Melissa Moffitt, a gynecologic oncologist at OHSU Health, pointed out that this particular class of drug can come with some pretty serious side effects — some women even liken them to the side effects typically associated with chemotherapy.
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“The side effects tend to be fatigue, nausea, and those effects on the bone marrow that patients often have while they’re on chemotherapy, necessitating blood draws and sometimes dose reductions because of their platelets being low or other blood counts,” Dr. Moffitt said. “The side effects of PARP inhibitors can be significant when we start them. However, when patients can push through and stay on the PARP inhibitors for four, six weeks, the side effects tend to resolve.”
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