Low-grade variety can be tougher to cure.

• Position: Ovarian Cancer - Brief article

Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is less common and aggressive than the high-grade variety, yet exceptionally difficult to treat when frontline therapy fails.

"After surgery, with or without pre-surgical chemotherapy, when low-grade serous ovarian cancer persists or returns, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy are relatively ineffective," concedes David Gershenson, professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Gynecological Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Response rates for treatment are measured in single digits. Gershenson and his colleagues have spent the greater part of 20 years characterizing the disease, which makes up 10% of ovarian cancer cases, and searching for new ways to treat it. Cancer recurs or persists in 80-85% of patients.

A clinical trial by the National Cancer Institute's Gynecological Oncology Group provides the first evidence of a drug that shows a relatively high response rate for these patients: selumetinib halts growth...