New Targeted Agents in Gynecologic Cancers: Synthetic Lethality, Homologous Recombination Deficiency, and PARP Inhibitors.

ABSTRACT:

Opinion statement

Inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) have emerged as a new class of anti-cancer drugs, specifically for malignancies bearing aberrations of the homologous recombination pathway, like those with mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. Olaparib, a potent PARP1 and PARP2 inhibitor, has been shown to significantly increase progression-free survival (PFS) in women with recurrent ovarian cancer related to a germline BRCA mutation and is currently approved fourth-line treatment in these patients. PARP inhibitors (PARPi) target the genetic phenomenon known as synthetic lethality to exploit faulty DNA repair mechanisms. While ovarian cancer is enriched with a population of tumors with known homologous recombination defects, investigations are underway to hel

SUBMITTER: Liu FW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5927601 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature