Sixteen patients had detectable faults in genes that play a role in repairing damaged DNA, including BRCA 1 and 2. A total of 49 males with advanced prostate cancer were included in the test and treated with olaparib – 16 of them responded positively to the treatment as it stopped cancer growth, generated lasting falls in prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and lessened the amount of tumour cell counts in the blood.
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“I hope it won’t be long before we are using olaparib in the clinic to treat prostate cancer”.
They also recommend that next-generation sequencing (used to identify mutations in the biopsy samples) can be used to better understand patient response to treatment.
An worldwide meeting of researchers which was led by experts at The Institute of Cancer Research, London for the trial called as TOPARP-A which received a wide range of support from various funders including Cancer Research United Kingdom, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, Prostate Cancer United Kingdom and the Movember Foundation.
Lynparza, known in the medical community as olaparib, has been theorized by researchers to be effective in prostate cancer patients who also have mutations in DNA fix genes.
English rationing watchdog Nice – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – is due to make a final decision on the drug later this year, but in two draft documents issued in June and September it said that NHS England should not pay for it.
Separate olaparib trials have also showed promise for women with breast cancer.
A gene-targeting pill for women may provide a highly effective treatment for up to a third of men with advanced prostate cancer, trial results have shown.
Numerous men taking part had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer with limited further treatment options. “We observed that about a third of the patients had a response in the tumor, normally lasting over six months and many times over a year”, Mateo said.
“These results demonstrate just how much we can benefit from the success of treatments for other diseases and it’s exactly the type of research we want to see more of”.
Cancer Research UK’s Dr Aine McCarthy added: “This trial is exciting because it could offer a new way to treat prostate cancer by targeting genetic mistakes in cancers that have spread”.
Institute of Cancer Research said that the drug has also found to stem tumor growth in many men having treatment-resistant prostate cancer.
Dr William Nelson, co-vice chair of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee and director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, said: “Understanding the link between prostate cancer and DNA fix mutations is incredibly important for patients and their families”.
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“The hope is that this approach could help save many more lives in the future”.
