New Ovarian Cancer drug 'Lynparza' one step closer

Ovarian cancer patients throughout Europe and the United States could soon be treated with a new drug discovered through pioneering research at the University of Sheffield funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research. Lynparza has become the first of a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors to be granted approval by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will now assess the drug to see whether it should become widely available on the NHS, with a decision expected in September 2015.
In 2005, Professor Thomas Helleday and his team of researchers at the University of Sheffield demonstrated how PARP inhibitors could be used as a tailored treatment for patients with BRCA2 mutations, which are seen in both hereditary ovarian and breast cancer.
The discovery was patent protected and licensed to pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca who continued the development process and undertook successful clinical trials.
Professor Helleday said: "I am delighted that after all the hard work carried out since 2005 when we made the original discovery, Lynparza has now been licenced by the European Commission and the FDA. 150,000 women in the European Union suffer from ovarian cancer. Last year, 21,980 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States. Many of these patients will benefit from this new therapy.
PARP inhibitors work by blocking the cancer cell's ability to repair damage. Healthy cells reproduce by dividing DNA into two strands and copying each strand. Before they do this, they repair damage in the DNA using the PARP protein.
If PARP is suppressed, normal cells use a second mechanism for DNA repair. Some cancers cannot undergo this second process because they have a mutation in a BRCA gene. These cancer cells rely completely on PARP to fix the damage and so when PARP is suppressed the BRCA mutated cell is unable to grow and eventually dies. Normal cells of the patient with a functioning BRCA are not affected.The novel element of the treatment is the fact that it is the mutation causing cancer that is exploited to specifically kill the cancer; this reduces the side effects often experienced with traditional anti-cancer treatments.

Lynparza has become the first of a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors to be granted approval by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug AdminisThe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will now assess the drug to see whether it should become widely available on the NHS, with a decision expected in September 2015In 2005, Professor Thomas Helleday and his team of researchers at the University of Sheffield demonstrated how PARP inhibitors could be used as a tailored treatment for patients with BRCA2 mutations, which are seen in both hereditary ovarian and breast cancer.