ATHENA-MONO / GOG-3020
A third PARP inhibitor showed the same pattern: longer disease control after first-line chemotherapy, biggest in tumours with faulty DNA repair.
PFS 20.2 vs 9.2 months in the intent-to-treat population (HR 0.52) and 28.7 vs 11.3 months in HRD-positive disease (HR 0.47; JCO 2022). Clovis went bankrupt in 2022; rucaparib is now marketed by pharma&. US first-line maintenance labelling did not follow.
Setting
Newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer after response to first-line platinum: rucaparib maintenance vs placebo
Phase
Phase 3
Sponsor
Clovis (now pharma&)
Registry
Headline result
PFS 20.2 vs 9.2 months (HR 0.52).
Reported
2022
Enrolled
538
In plain words
What these results mean for people, not percentages
Progression-free survival (ITT)primarysurrogate endpoint
- Median 20.2 vs 9.2 months with Rucaparib compared with Placebo; about 11 months longer for half the group.
- A median is a midpoint: half the people did better than this and half did worse, so it is not a prediction for any one person.
- Put another way, the treated group had about 48 percent lower chance of the event at any given time (hazard ratio 0.52, likely range 0.4 to 0.68).
- This is a surrogate endpoint: it measures the cancer being controlled or absent on scans and tests, which often, but not always, translates into living longer.
- These results apply to the people the trial enrolled: Newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer after response to first-line platinum: rucaparib maintenance vs placebo. People in a different situation may not see the same effect.
Numbers are from the trial as recorded here; see the source links in the table below. This is orientation, not medical advice: ask your team how closely the trial population matches you.