Arizona physician leads US research for cancer medication

PHOENIX – The Food and Drug Administration approved a medication in April to treat ovarian cancer that an Arizona doctor led research on.

The medication, Zejula, was approved to treat patients that have been diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer and keep them in remission.

Arizona Oncology doctor Bradley Monk was the lead U.S. researcher on the study.

“The problem is when a woman is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, they almost always respond to chemotherapy, but they almost always recur and die in the end,” Monk told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.

“The intention was to develop an oral medication that can keep them in remission and do it in a way that doesn’t decrease the quality of their life.”

Monk explained this is a big breakthrough when it comes to prolonging people’s lives who are dealing with ovarian cancer. In previous trials, the medication was used later on in the course of a patient’s treatment.

This study began focusing on patients who were more recently diagnosed with ovarian cancers.

Monk is a gynecological cancer specialist who treats cervical, uterine and ovarian cancer. He’s also a clinical trialist, so he can get his patients into clinical trials. This is the 16th drug he’s been apart of that’s been approved by the FDA.

Monk said the next step would be to pair the medication with other drugs and look at other tumor types that it could possible treat.

KTAR 92.3 FM’s Martha Maurer contributed to this report.

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