HMN 2026: How Combining new drug with chemotherapy extends survival of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients in clinical trial

Platinum-based chemotherapy is a standard treatment for ovarian cancer, but its effectiveness can be limited in some cases. In some patients, the disease returns or progresses within six months of the last platinum dose, a condition referred to as platinum-resistant cancer. This form of cancer is a leading cause of gynecological cancer-related mortality.

A clinical trial has presented a solution that can help patients with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer live longer.

The ROSELLA trial found that adding the new drug relacorilant (Lifyorli by Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated) to standard chemotherapy, nab-paclitaxel, led to a 35% reduction in the risk of death and an increase in median overall survival by four months. The findings are published in The Lancet .

A pill for better survival rates

When cancer returns soon after platinum-based chemotherapy, the options are often very limited, with patients typically living only 10 to 17 months. For years, the standard approach to dealing with such cases has been single-drug chemotherapy, which can only offer modest benefit. This created an urgent need for better treatments that can meaningfully extend survival.

Researchers found that selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonists might be a promising option. The stress hormone, cortisol, can actually work against the body when cancer is involved. With the help of glucocorticoid receptors, it sends stay-alive signals to cancer cells, helping them dodge mechanisms designed to destroy them.

Relacorilant, a first-in-class selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist drug that essentially blocks cortisol from delivering those protective messages to tumors, leaving cancer cells more vulnerable and making standard chemotherapy significantly more effective at killing them.

Previous studies have shown that relacorilant effectively sensitizes cancer cells to chemotherapy. Phase II trials and interim Phase III data both pointed in the same direction. This study took it a step further with the Phase III, open-label, randomized controlled ROSELLA trial.

The study included 381 women with platinum-resistant ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer and was carried out across 117 hospitals and cancer centers in 14 countries.

Patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one received a combination of relacorilant—taken as an oral pill the day before, the day of, and the day after chemotherapy—along with nab-paclitaxel, while the other received nab-paclitaxel alone as standard chemotherapy.

The trial showed a clear improvement in survival with the combination treatment. Patients who received the drug combination lived for a median of 16 months, compared to 11.9 months for those receiving standard chemotherapy alone. At 18 months, 46% of patients in the combination group were still alive, which was double that of the

chemotherapy alone group. Unlike most modern cancer drugs, which only work if a patient has a specific biological marker or gene, this combination delivered results across almost all patients in the study, regardless of their biomarkers.

These findings make a strong case for adding relacorilant to chemotherapy for women with platinum-resistant cancer. Once it progresses through standard procedures and is approved for clinical use, this approach could offer a new treatment option for patients with very limited choices and low survival rates, while also giving them more meaningful time with their loved ones.

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