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Update on PARP Inhibitors in Breast Cancer

Current Treatment Options in Oncology volume 19, Article number: 21 (2018) Cite this article

Opinion statement

The single agent activity of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) in germline BRCA mutated (gBRCAm) breast and ovarian cancer suggests untapped potential for this new class of drug in breast cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved three PARPi (olaparib, rucaparib, and niraparib) so far to treat certain ovarian cancers, including those with gBRCAm and olaparib for treatment of gBRCAm breast cancers. Several PARPi are now under clinical development for breast cancer in the various treatment settings. Recently, two phase III trials of olaparib (OlympiaD) and talazoparib (EMBRACA) demonstrated 3-month progression-free survival improvement with PARPi compared to physician’s choice single agent chemotherapy in metastatic gBRCAm breast cancer. To date, PARPi seems less efficacious in metastatic breast cancer patients than those with BRCA mutated platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer, perhaps reflecting the biologic heterogeneity and low somatic BRCA mutation rate in breast cancer. The use of PARPi is gradually evolving, including combination strategies with chemotherapy, targeted agents, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy in women with and without gBRCAm. The role of predictive biomarkers, including molecular signatures and homologous recombination repair deficiency scores based on loss of heterozygosity and other structural genomic aberrations, will be crucial to identify a subgroup of patients who may have benefit from PARPi. An improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying PARPi clinical resistance will also be important to enable the development of new approaches to increase efficacy. This is a field rich in opportunity, and the coming years should see a better understanding of which breast cancer patients we should treat with PARPi and where these agents should come in over the course of treatment.

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Author notes

  1. Alexandra S. Zimmer and Mitchell Gillard contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women’s Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, 10 Center Dr. MSC1906 Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1906, USA

    Alexandra S. Zimmer MD, Stanley Lipkowitz MD, PhD & Jung-Min Lee MD

  2. School of Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, 101 Nicolls Road Stony Brook, Bethesda, NY, 11794-8434, USA

    Mitchell Gillard BA

Authors
  1. Alexandra S. Zimmer MD
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  2. Mitchell Gillard BA
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  3. Stanley Lipkowitz MD, PhD
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  4. Jung-Min Lee MD
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Correspondence to Alexandra S. Zimmer MD.

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Alexandra S. Zimmer, Mitchell Gillard, Stanley Lipkowitz, and Jung-Min Lee declare they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Breast Cancer

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Zimmer, A.S., Gillard, M., Lipkowitz, S. et al. Update on PARP Inhibitors in Breast Cancer. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 19, 21 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-018-0540-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-018-0540-2

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • BRCA mutations
  • PARP inhibitors
  • HRR dysfunction