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In the second study, researchers found that using mifepristone along with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin might improve success in treating ovarian cancer.

"Mifepristone, which was initially created for contraceptive purposes, has a therapeutic effect against ovarian cancers that remained after standard cisplatin therapy," lead researcher Dr. Carlos M. Telleria, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, said during Tuesday's teleconference.

One of the main problems in treating ovarian cancer is that the usual treatment with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin doesn't kill all the cancer cells. This allows the cells to reform into colonies and the cancer to continue to grow.

"We show for the first time that mifepristone is effective in preventing the re-growth of ovarian cancer cells that survive standard cisplatin chemotherapy," Telleria said.

There are more than 20,000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year in the United States, and more than 15,000 women die from the disease annually, Telleria noted.

In the study, the researchers exposed ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin. Although cisplatin killed the majority of the cells, there were cells that escaped and regrouped as cancer. This happened all three times the cells were treated with cisplatin over 36 days.

However, when cells were treated with cisplatin and then exposed to mifepristone, none of the cancer cells survived, the researchers found.

"This study suggests that mifepristone has the potential to improve the success of the standard platinum drugs in the treatment of ovarian cancer," Telleria said.

More information

For more on cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

SOURCES: April 15, 2008, teleconference with Rakesh K. Jain, Ph.D., director, Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Carlos M. Telleria, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, Vermillion; American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, San Diego