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Olaparib improved survival rates in patients with breast cancer subtype

By Brian Buntz | June 3, 2021

AstraZenecaAstraZeneca (LON: AZN) announced that its oncology drug olaparib (Lynparza) led to clinically meaningful improvements in a Phase 3 study. The study focused on patients with germline BRCA-mutated high-risk human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancer.

Some 5% of breast cancer patients have BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

Clinical trial investigators have repeatedly demonstrated that olaparib is effective against BRCA-related cancer.

NEJM recently published a summary of the study, known as OlympiA, whose primary endpoint was disease-free survival. The study had 1,836 participants.

After a median follow-up period of 2.5 years, the 3-year invasive survival-free survival rate for olaparib recipients was 85.9% compared with 77.1% in the placebo group.

For patients who had received local treatment and standard neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy, olaparib led to a 42% reduction in invasive breast cancer recurrences, second cancers or death.

The drug also lowered the risk of distant disease recurrence or death by 43%.

Olaparib is currently FDA-indicated for several cancers including BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. In particular, the indication covers patients who have already been treated with neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy including those treated in a metastatic setting.

The recent clinical trial data could potentially support the use of olaparib as “a follow-on to all the standard initial breast cancer treatments to reduce the rate of life-threatening recurrence and cancer spread for many patients identified through genetic testing to have mutations in [BRCA1 and BRCA2] genes,” said OlympiA steering committee chair Andrew Tutt in a statement.

Adverse events from the drug were in line with other olaparib clinical trials. Nausea was the most common adverse event, affecting 57% of participants. Next in line were fatigue (40%), anaemia (24%) and vomiting (22%). Roughly 10% of patients who received olaparib discontinued treatment as a result of adverse events compared to 4% of placebo recipients.

Olaparib also fared well in the separate SOLO-1 trial. According to the five-year follow-up results from that study, olaparib prolonged progression-free survival in patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer with a BRCA1 and 2 mutations.

 


Filed Under: Oncology
Tagged With: AstraZeneca, BRCA, BRCA1, BRCA2, FDA, Lynparza, olaparib
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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