Ovarian Cancer
Common disease
In the U.S., ovarian cancer is the fifth-most common cancer in women and has the highest mortality rate of all gynecological cancers. In 2020, over 32,000 new cases were diagnosed in the U.S. and over 70,000 were diagnosed in the European Union, of which 90 percent were epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs) that have a five-year survival rate of 44 percent.
Significant unmet medical needs
The standard of care for ovarian cancer has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s. Chemotherapy is used after surgery to treat any residual disease, or before surgery when a tumor cannot be completely removed or optimally debulked via surgery. Despite optimal surgery and adjuvant paclitaxel-carboplatin chemotherapy, 70 percent of patients relapse within the first three years.
Chemotherapy can be given intravenously or in the peritoneal cavity. Intraperitoneal delivery enhances drug delivery at peritoneal surface and a clinical trial reported improved overall survival from 49.7 to 65.6 months by eliminating microscopic peritoneal disease more efficiently and delivering a much higher dose of the active drug compared to intravenously administered chemotherapy. Efficacy of the relevant chemotherapy can be increased by heating the solution and administering the procedure via Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Enhanced Chemotherapy (HIPEC) under anesthesia. These are also only carried out in specialized treatment centers and not readily available.
Current chemotherapies have not been optimized nor approved for intraperitoneal use.
Though existing intraperitoneal chemotherapy is associated with longer progression-free survival and overall survival, it is invasive, it causes more adverse side effects and toxicity than intravenous chemotherapy and practitioners have limited technical expertise with intra-peritoneal chemotherapy or HIPEC. Further obstacles include two hours of additional time in the operating room, longer duration of hospitalization and increased use of diverting colostomies or ileostomies that increase the overall cost of treatment and reduce the overall quality of life.
LiPax- IP
LIPAC is developing a new Liposomal Enhanced Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (LEIPC) for the intraperitoneal treatment of Stage II/III ovarian cancer, utilizing LiPax technology to improve penetration and enhance tolerability. LiPax-IP has demonstrated significant promise in preclinical studies.