A combination therapy improved progression-free survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with distinct genetic mutations compared to either therapy alone or sequentially, according to results from a Northwestern Medicine-led multi-center clinical trial published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research . "The trial design allowed us to evaluate the efficacy of abiraterone/prednisone versus olaparib versus a combination of the two treatments as first-line treatment for men with mCRPC whose tumors had specific genetic alterations," said Maha Hussain, MD, the Genevieve E. Teuton Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, who was lead author and the principle investigator of the study.
"The results clearly indicate that the combination of abiraterone/prednisone plus olaparib resulted in higher response rates and longer time to disease progression compared to either agent alone or sequentially." Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) occurs when prostate cancer which has spread to different parts in the body stops responding to hormone treatment and spreads to other parts of the body. Approximately 25% of patients with mCRPC express unique genetic alterations known as homologous recombination-repair mutations (HRRms), namely in the BRCA1/2 and ATM genes, underscoring the need for more targeted therapies for this subgroup of patients.
Olaparib, a PARP inhibitor that inhibits the poly ADP ribose polymerase enzym.