ICARE Newsletter Winter 2019

New Research and Approvals of PARP Inhibitor Drugs to Treat Ovarian Cancer in BRCA Carriers

First line maintenance treatment among patients newly diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer: The results of a trial using a PARP inhibitor (olaparib) as maintenance treatment among ovarian cancer patients with advanced disease, a BRCA mutation, and complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy showed that survival at 3 years was 60% among those who got the drug versus 27% among those who did not. Investigators concluded that among those with successful first-line chemotherapy, “The use of maintenance therapy with olaparib provided a substantial benefit among women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer and a BRCA mutation, with a 70% lower risk of disease progression or death with olaparib than with placebo.” Soon after publication of these results, on December 19, 2018, the FDA approved olaparib for maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutation advanced ovarian cancer.

Moore K, et al. N Engl J Med. 2018 Dec 27. PMID: 30345884.

Permanent link to this article: https://inheritedcancer.net/2nlw2019/