Ovarian Cancer Drug Shows Potential As Prostate Cancer Treatment

New research presented on Tuesday suggests that the recently approved ovarian cancer treatment from Aztrazeneca, olaparib (Lynparza), can also be a potential treatment for prostate cancer. Olaparib was the first drug of its class used to treat gene mutations in women.

As stated on the FDA official website, the drug belongs to the class poly ADP-ribose polymerase, or PARP, inhibitor, which works by blocking enzymes responsible for repairing damaged DNA. The drug received its licence in December 2014. The new second phase trials led by the Institute of Cancer in London and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust show that olaparib can also be effective in treating prostate cancer. “This opens up the exciting possibility of delivering precise treatment for advanced prostate cancer…” said Johann De Bono, a chief investigator at the institute, in a report from Reuters.

Prostate Cancer UK research director Dr. Iaian Frame hopes that every man with prostate cancer will get the treatment intended for his specific situation. “The use of DNA testing to identify mutations like BRCA and direct treatment to them is a huge step in that direction, and so these early results are very exciting,” said Frame.

In the trial of 49 men with advanced prostate cancer that do not respond well to conventional therapy, 16 showed clinical response, with 14 of them found to have tumours that carry DNA repair mutations. Olaparib was shown to stop the growth of cancer cells, decrease the levels of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, and reduce the number of tumour cells circulating in the blood.

Every year, there are about 42,000 men in the UK that have prostate cancer, and 11,000 deaths from this disease have been recorded. All the men who participated in the trial were diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

A second part of the trial is underway and only men with detectable DNA repair mutations will participate in the olaparib study. Researchers expect that this group will have a much higher response rate.

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