An international team of scientists has announced a breakthrough in the treatment of breast cancer. According to the results of the large-scale OlympiA study, the drug olaparib significantly reduces the risk of recurrence and metastasis of the disease in women with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.
The 2.5-year study involved women who had undergone chemotherapy. After the course of treatment, 85.9% of participants taking olaparib remained relapse-free, compared with only 77.1% in the placebo group. This represents a 42% reduction in the risk of the disease recurring.
The data on metastases were even more convincing: 87.5% of patients on olaparib did not have distant metastases, compared to 80.4% in the control group. This is a 43% reduction in the risk of cancer spreading. Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor (an enzyme that helps cancer cells repair themselves). It has already been used to treat late-stage cancer, but now its effectiveness has been confirmed in the early, curative stage - especially in patients with inherited mutations.
The chair of the study's steering committee, Professor Andrew Tutty, said:
“For women with early breast cancer and inherited mutations, there has never been a targeted treatment to reduce the risk of recurrence. Now olaparib could be that treatment. This is a major breakthrough.”
