In each newsletter, we give participants the opportunity to have their questions addressed by experts in the
field. This question was addressed by Kerry Schaffer, MD, medical oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical
Center with a focus on urological cancers.
Q. Is there enough information to consider using PARP inhibitors to treat inherited forms of
prostate cancer?
A. Over the last few years, many studies have reported on the use of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) in advanced prostate cancer, 1,2,3 including men with inherited cancer gene mutations, but there still remains a need for larger more definitive studies. At the moment, the strongest data to support the use of PARPi is for BRCA2 carriers; the data also support use in BRCA1 and PALB2 carriers. Finally, use may be considered in some of the other DNA repair genes, although conclusions about the impact of PARPi for these other genes remain preliminary4 – these genes include ATM, RAD51C, RAD51D, BARD1, and CHEK2. These findings highlight the need for patients with prostate cancer to participate in clinical trials, so that over time we can better understand what treatments will work best for them.
1Adiba, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2020 Nov. PMID: 32795228. 2de Bono, et al. N Engl J Med. 2020 May. PMID: 32343890.
3Mateo, et al. Lancet Oncol. 2020 Jan. PMID: 31806540. 4Abida, et al. Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Jun. PMID: 32086346.