Eli Lilly and Company has announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration, FDA, has approved gemcitabine HCl, known as Gemzar, in chemotherapy cancer treatments for women facing recurrent ovarian cancer. Gemzar is only approved for the treatment of ovarian cancer when used in combination with carboplatin, another chemotherapy drug currently used to treat women with advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer.


Gemzar is already approved as a cancer drug in the treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Clinical studies reviewed by the FDA showed that patients treated with a combination of Gemzar and carboplatin experienced a significant improvement in survival and response rates compared to carboplatin alone.

"Ovarian cancer is marked by one of the highest recurrence rates of all women's cancers," states Dr. Robert Ozols, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center. "The Gemzar combination can help us aggressively address this recurrent disease with increased clinical efficacy and generally manageable side effects."