The anti-cancer drug olaparib may be effective in treating biochemically recurrent prostate cancer without accompanying hormone therapy for men who have mutations in genes such as BRCA2, according to results of a Phase II clinical trial of 51 patients conducted at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and three other sites. The study was done on men experiencing signs of cancer recurrence after surgical removal of the prostate, as measured by a high level of the protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Following treatment with olaparib, 13 participants, including all 11 who had BRCA2 mutations, had a decrease in PSA of at least 50%—a sign that their cancers were receding.
A report about the work was published Aug. 22 in JAMA Oncology . The other participating centers were the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh and the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
While most men with localized prostate cancer are cured with surgery or primary radiotherapy, up to 40% will develop a recurrence as measured by a rising PSA, explains lead study author Cathy Handy Marshall, M.D., M.
P.H., an assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins.
The study was co-led by former Kimmel Cancer Center prostate cancer expert Emmanuel Antonarakis, M.D., who is now associate director of translational research at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.
He maintains an adjunct professorship at Johns Hopki.