Promising results for new treatment

The first of a totally new type of cancer treatment is showing promise for patients with inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancer in clinical trial results published today.   The trials were led by Dr Andrew Tutt, Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at King’s College London, based at Guy’s Hospital in London.

The drug investigated in the trials, olaparib, is one of a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors and comes in pill form. It targets cancer cells caused by faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which affects around 1,500 of the nearly 46,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year. While this is a small group of patients these drugs have been shown in laboratory research to have potential benefits for a wider range of cancer types which share similar characteristics.

The results are for two separate Phase II international, multi-centre clinical trials – one for breast cancer and one for ovarian cancer patients. Both used olaparib and were funded by AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company which owns the drug.

Breast cancer study leader Dr Andrew Tutt, Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at King’s College London, said:  “This new type of treatment is showing great promise for patients whose cancer is caused by this specific genetic fault. It was remarkable to see that olaparib benefited women with advanced breast and ovarian cancer who had already been treated with several different chemotherapy drugs.  However, it is important to remember this drug is at an early stage of development, and further clinical trials will be required to fully evaluate its potential before it would be considered as a licensed treatment.”

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