A study in ovarian cancer patients evaluating rucaparib and nivolumab as maintenance treatment following response to front-line platinum-based chemotherapy (ATHENA)
Who can take part
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
You may be able to take part in this clinical trial if you:
- have a newly diagnosed, stage III or IV high-grade epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer
- have responded to chemotherapy
- are aged 18 and over
- have had surgery for your cancer
- have overall good levels of wellbeing and activity
This is not an exhaustive list. If you're interested in participating in a clinical trial, you should speak to your doctor about what other criteria might apply.
About the trial
Maintenance treatment refers to drugs that are given to try to slow or prevent or delay the cancer's return after it has responded to chemotherapy.
Currently the PARP inhibitors (one of which is rucaparib) are the only type of targeted treatment licensed for maintenance use in ovarian cancer in the UK. Nivolumab is a different type of targeted treatment that can block cancer's ability to hide itself and helps your T cells (part of your immune system) to be active and attack cancer cells again.
This trial looks at whether two different types of anti-cancer drugs, rucaparib and nivolumab, given as maintenance treatment are:
- safe
- more effective than existing maintenance treatments (on their own and combined)
- well-tolerated
The drugs involved in this trial are:
- Rucaparib – this is a type of targeted treatment known as a PARP inhibitor. It's taken by mouth twice daily.
- Nivolumab – this is a drug known as an anti-programmed death receptor-(PD)-1 inhibitor. It's given as an infusion into the vein (intravenously).
- Placebo – this is an inactive drug or treatment used in a clinical trial. It's sometimes referred to as a 'sugar pill'. Read more about placebo in our clinical trials glossary
If you take part in this study, you'll be randomised (placed into a treatment group by a computer) into one of four treatment groups:
- Oral rucaparib + intravenous (IV) nivolumab
- Oral rucaparib + intravenous (IV) placebo
- Oral placebo + intravenous (IV) nivolumab
- Oral placebo + intravenous (IV) placebo
If you take part in this trial you'll also be asked to donate samples of tumour tissue and blood for research purposes.
