Uses Of Olaparib
Olaparib is a medicine used in chemotherapy to treat various cancers in advanced stages. It is marketed as Lynparza and was originally developed by AstraZeneca, an English pharmaceutical company. In the following lines, we will discuss in detail the uses of the drug Olaparib.
There are different pharmaceutical formats, and doctors choose the product used depending on the disease and its stage. For example, tablets are a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with advanced epithelial ovarian or fallopian tube cancer. The drug is also used in patients with relapses under platinum therapy.
Furthermore, Olaparib capsules are intended for the treatment of cancers with a mutant gene: BRCA. This gene plays an important role in the development of cancer, especially breast and ovarian cancer.
Olaparib capsules and tablets are not interchangeable due to differences in dosage and bioavailability of each formulation. In addition, the side effects that these formulations can cause in patients are:
Uses of Olaparib
This medicine inhibits the human enzymes responsible for the proper repair of DNA: PARP. In-vitro tests have shown that it inhibits the growth of selected tumor cell lines and also the growth of the tumor. It can be used both as monotherapy and in combination with previously established chemotherapies.
When Olaparib binds to these DNA-associated enzymes, it prevents its repair through a series of reactions. In healthy cells, this repair requires the proper functioning of the BRCA-1 and BCRA-2 genes. Alternative error-prone repair pathways are beginning to be activated, leading to increased genomic instability in tumor cells that have defects in these proteins.
Genomic instability can reach intolerable levels after several rounds of replication of these tumor cells. As a result, cancer cells die. They have a lot of DNA damage compared to normal cells.
Olaparib after platinum treatment has been shown to be beneficial in studies of patients who had a BRCA mutation and therefore did not have a functional protein. The result was a delay in tumor progression and an increase in survival compared to platinum-only treatment.
Olaparib and BRCA
As mentioned above, Olaparib is mainly used to treat breast cancer, although it can also be used to treat other cancers. This is especially true if there are advanced neoplasms or ovarian cancer with metastases.
Regarding breast cancer, one of the most common molecular events in triple-negative breast tumors is a change in the function of the BRCA protein. This type of cancer is one of the most aggressive for women.
More than 80% of patients with a BRCA1 gene mutation have triple negative breast cancer. Also, approximately 15% of patients with ovarian cancer and 5% of those with breast, pancreatic or prostate cancer inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor. These are proteins that help repair damaged DNA. Because BRCA mutations can prevent DNA repair, a similar inhibition of this process with Olaparib can lead to the death of cancer cells.
The researchers evaluated the effectiveness of Olaparib as monotherapy and in combination with other chemotherapy drugs in various phase II clinical trials. Its efficacy as monotherapy in pre-treated advanced breast cancer patients had a high response rate.
Olaparib is a new approach to antineoplastic therapy by inhibiting PARP. In fact, it can solve a big problem in patients with BRCA-associated cancer.
Treatment is not easy because these neoplastic diseases are advanced. They require a combination of therapies and proper follow-up by your doctor. Ideally, there should be an oncology counseling group that is always attentive to the patient’s needs and takes into account all existing factors.
