The FDA has approved capivasertib (Truqap™, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals) in combination with fulvestrant for adult patients with hormone receptor (HR)–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. This indication is for patients with one or more PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN alterations, as detected by an FDA-approved test, following progression on at least one endocrine-based regimen in the metastatic setting or recurrence on or within 12 mo...

The FDA has approved olaparib (Lynparza®, AstraZeneca) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA–mutated, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–negative high-risk early breast cancer who have previously received adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Olaparib is a poly–adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor and is the first approved medication targeting BRCA mutations in early breast cancer. "Approximately 5% of unse...

In patients with platinum-sensitive BRCA-mutated relapsed ovarian cancer, olaparib maintenance therapy significantly increased median overall survival compared with placebo, according to results of the final analysis of the phase 3 SOLO2/ENGOT Ov-21 trial to be presented this coming weekend in the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Virtual Scientific Program. The trial enrolled 295 patients with BRCA-mutated relapsed ovarian cancer who were previously treated with at least two lin...

Carriers of germline variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are more likely to experience a pathologic complete response to two different chemotherapy regimens, according to a retrospective study now published in JAMA Oncology. This study was a secondary analysis of data from the GeparOcto multicenter prospective clinical trial, in which 945 women with different subtypes of high-risk, early-stage breast cancer were randomized to receive either sequential intense dose-dense epirubicin/paclitaxel/c...

​Researchers have found a way to identify which patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), the most malignant and most common form of ovarian cancer, will respond to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor therapy. The answer to this question, as addressed in a study published in Nature Communications, could allow doctors to tailor patients' therapy on an individual basis, facilitating better treatment responses and increased chances of survival. Mutations of two BRCA genes...

​Talazoparib (Talzenna®, Pfizer Inc.), an orally available poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer with known or suspected deleterious germline BRCA (gBRCA) mutations. Eligibility for talazoparib therapy must be determined using the BRACAnalysis CDx® test (Myriad Genetic Laboratories Inc.), which the FDA has also approved a...

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have identified two new genes that can impact BRCA2-deficient cancer through "synthetic lethality," which occurs when a combination of deficiencies in two or more genes leads to cell death that would not occur with one deficiency alone. Inactivation of BRCA1 or BRCA2, both important tumor suppressor genes named for their roles in breast cancer, increases a woman's risk of breast cancer by up to 80% and increases her risk of ovarian cancer by around 50%...

By identifying a type of scanner protein that is used to look for any damaged chromosomes, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have made a new discovery that illuminates the DNA repair process of homologous recombination (HR), which is important to cancer prevention. The cellular repair process, which is crucial for ridding cells of damaged DNA and preventing cancer, involves two repair systems: error-free homologous recombination (HR) and mutagenic non-homologous end-joining. Homologous...

The phase 3 POLO trial (NCT02184195) reports that maintenance olaparib increases progression-free survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer with germline BRCA mutations. "Metastatic pancreatic cancer is particularly refractory to treatment," Talia Golan, MD, Head of the Sheba Pancreatic Cancer Center at the Oncology Institute of Tel Aviv University's Sheba Medical Center, and colleagues remark in their publication in The New England Journal of Medicine. "Current standard-of-care first-line t...