Ovarian cancer drug reduces chance certain advanced breast cancers will get worse

A drug that’s already approved to treat certain ovarian cancers holds some advanced breast cancers at bay longer than standard chemotherapy, according to results from a clinical trial. Tumours shrank in about 60% of women who received the targeted drug, called olaparib (Lynparza), compared with 29% of those who received chemotherapy. The OlympiAD trial also found that women who took olaparib, a type of drug called a PARP inhibitor, experienced fewer side effects and had a better quality of life than those given standard chemotherapy. Results from the trial were presented (link is external) at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago in the US, and are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

See original article at: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/news-report/2017-06-04-ovarian-cancer-drug-reduces-chance-certain-advanced-breast-cancers-will-get-worse