Lynparza's approval brings new hope for pancreatic cancer patients
National Foundation for Cancer Research Feb 21, 2020
An old drug with a new purpose
First approved as a maintenance therapy for ovarian and breast cancers, Lynparza is a poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor. PARP is an enzyme that helps cells repair damaged DNA. It is critical to the continued growth of cancer cells, which replicate faster than healthy cells and often contain damaged DNA that must be repaired for the cells to function. Lynparza blocks PARP from repairing the damaged DNA, causing the cells to die.
As a result, Lynparza accomplishes a feat of which few other medications are capable—it allows patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer to spend more time with family and friends without experiencing further progression of their illness. In the phase 3 Pancreas Cancer Olaparib Ongoing (POLO) trial conducted by AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc., which led to the approval of the drug for use in pancreatic cancer patients, Lynparza nearly doubled the amount of time that patients lived without disease progression or death—an average of 7.4 months vs 3.8 months for patients who took a placebo.
At this time, Lynparza is the only PARP inhibitor approved to treat adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer whose tumors showed no growth after 16 weeks of chemotherapy treatment.
Patients who are interested in learning more about Lynparza can visit the manufacturer’s website at https://www.lynparza.com/.
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