All About Olaparib
Olaparib is a chemotherapy drug indicated for the treatment of different cancers in advanced stages. Its trademark is Lynparza and it was developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
There are different pharmaceutical forms of olaparib, and one or the other is indicated depending on the pathology and the stage of the patient. For example, the tablet formulation is used as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with high-grade epithelial ovarian and fallopian tube cancer. It also works for relapses in patients on platinum-based therapy.
On the other hand, olarparib capsules are used to treat cancers that have a mutated gene: BRCA. This gene plays a very important role in the development of cancer, especially breast and ovarian.
Olaparib capsules and tablets are not interchangeable due to differences in dosage and bioavailability of each formulation. On the other hand, it should be mentioned that the adverse effects that these formulations can cause in patients who take them are:
- Sickness
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Neutropenia
- Thrombocytopenia
- Dizziness
Mechanism of action of olaparib
Olaparib is a drug that inhibits some human enzymes responsible for correct DNA repair. These enzymes are known under the name of PARP.
It has been shown in vitro to inhibit the growth of selected tumor cell lines and to inhibit the growth of tumors in vivo. It can be used both in monotherapy treatment and in combination with previously established chemotherapies.
When olaparib binds to these enzymes that are associated with DNA, through a series of reactions, it manages to prevent its repair. In healthy cells, this repair requires the BRCA-1 and BCRA-2 genes to function properly. In tumor cells that show a malfunction of these proteins, other alternative repair pathways that are prone to errors begin to be activated, causing greater genomic instability.
After several rounds of replication of these tumor cells, genomic instability can reach intolerable values. As a consequence, cancer cells die. The reason for this is that they have a high number of DNA damage compared to normal ones.
In studies carried out with patients who had a BRCA mutation, and therefore this protein did not function correctly, it has been seen that the administration of olaparib after treatment with platinum was beneficial. The result was a delay in tumor progression and an increase in overall survival versus platinum-only treatment.