Olaparib, marketed by AstraZeneca under the trade name Lynparza, a drug that blocks breast cancer cells’ ability to self-repair, has completed six years of study proving it bests traditional chemotherapy, according to a June 4 release from Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.
The findings were presented earlier at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. A group of international researchers at Penn Medicine (University of Pennsylvania Health System), the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and elsewhere had undertaken the Phase 3 trial in 2011, seeking to determine whether the immunotherapy was effective against genetic forms of breast cancer.
Dr. Susan Domchek, the study’s co-author and team organizer, directs the Basser Research Center BRCA at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center.
“Although previous studies suggested olaparib could benefit patients with advanced breast cancers, we are now reporting that olaparib improves profession-free survival better than standard chemotherapy,” Domchek said in the release. “Working together as partners, we have the opportunity and obligation to be involved in the development of trials that explore new and promising avenues for investigation.”
According to Cancer.gov, BRCA1 and BRCA2 are self-repairing genes that can form tumors when they malfunction. Both genes were found to respond to olaparib during the OlympiAD clinical trial.
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