A new form of combination therapy has been found to be more effective against the most common ovarian cancer, researchers say.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, UCLA researchers determined that pairing chemotherapy with an experimental drug prevents the cancer from returning after treatment.

The drug, birinapant, sensitizes cancer cells to the chemotherapy and triggers programmed cell death, said researcher Sanaz Memarzadeh, M.D., a gynecologic cancer surgeon with the University of California-Los Angeles.

"We found that these cells were like little time bombs, hiding from the chemotherapy and then later initiating tumor growth," said Dr. Memarzadeh said.

She explained that ovarian cancer often responds well to the chemotherapy drug carboplatin initially, but it frequently comes back after treatment. But the UCLA researchers found that a subset of tumor cells that don't produce the protein CA125 — a biomarker used to test for ovarian cancer — allows the cells to evade the drug and live long enough to regrow the original tumor.

"We do a phenomenal job with surgery, peeling off as much of the tumor as we can see, and then we do standard chemotherapy, but the cancers still recur,” she added. “I think our study helps explain why this happens. If this combination of drugs proves effective, we may be able to improve outcomes for this deadly disease. I think it's entirely feasible."

Memarzadeh and her team plan to conduct a clinical trial of the combination therapy.

Ovarian cancer accounts for 5 percent of cancer deaths among women, and causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer. About 21,000 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, and more than 14,000 will die of the disease.

The study was primarily funded by the American Cancer Society.