New Developments Show a Promising Future for Ovarian Cancer Treatments

Following the completion of a recent clinical trial, the FDA has approved a new, tablet-based form of drug Lynparza. With this new form of the drug, patients who had previously been taking Lynparza as a capsule 8 times a day can now reduce their daily dosage to just 2 tablets per day. Lynparza was initially approved for the market by the FDA in 2014. Since its approval, Lynparza has been prescribed and used for treatment in over 3,000 cases of ovarian cancer.

The effects of Lynparza as a both a capsule and now a tablet can be integral for a patient’s successful treatment. The drug inhibits the poly ADP-ribose polymerase or PARP and also kills cancer cells with its DNA damaging effects. While in normal cells DNA will sustain damage and die over time, cancerous DNA cells don’t die. These cells rely on PARP which is essentially the cell repair mechanism to stay alive. This abnormality is often the result of some gene mutation, in the case of ovarian cancer often relating to the BRCA cells. Lynparza inhibits the function of PARP which means that the cancerous cells cannot rely on it to sustain themselves and stay alive and are therefore more likely to die.