A supplementary treatment for women undergoing platinum chemotherapy to treat recurring ovarian cancer has been identified by an Italian researcher.

Nicoletta Colombo, of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, said that two studies showed that the addition of the taxane paclitaxel to platinum-based treatment increased survival by seven per cent after two years.

The addition of the taxane meant a ten per cent increase in disease-free survival after one year, and although the objective response rate - greater than 50 per cent tumor shrinkage - was better with its use, statistical indications to that effect were less impressive.

The parallel Italian ICON4 trial and the German OVAR 2.2 trial both compared six cycles of platinum chemotherapy with six cycles of paclitaxel added to platinum.

Dr Colombo said the best results were among women who had been disease-free for more than a year before relapsing.

Elizabeth Eisenhauer, the director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, said the two studies were 'the largest ever randomised trial in relapsed ovarian cancer', and that the results were clear.

'All the parameters of efficacy - overall survival, progression-free survival and response rate - favour the same arm, the paclitaxel-platinum arm.'

Although toxicity is high and more research needs to be done on how to apply the treatment outside the clinic, combination therapy may be the best new way of treating patients whose tumors are platinum sensitive.