Dr. McCann on Combination Trials With PARP Inhibitors in Ovarian Cancer

Video

In Partnership With:

Kelly McCann, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist in the Breast Cancer Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses combination clinical trials of PARP inhibitors in patients with ovarian cancer.

Kelly McCann, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist in the Breast Cancer Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses combination trials of PARP inhibitors in patients with ovarian cancer.

PARP inhibitors seem to work best in the BRCA1/2 population, but they can also work in any patient who has homologous recombination repair deficiency. Homologous recombination is a type of DNA repair that repairs DNA double strand breaks. Clinical trials have tried to look at combining PARP inhibitors with chemotherapy. When they are combined, McCann states that they both tend to have myelosuppressive toxicities, giving patients anemia, thrombocytopenia, and neutropenia.

Most of these trials, McCann states, have started at full dose chemotherapy and escalated the PARP inhibitor. Many of these trials have not given patients the full therapeutic dose. Therefore, other combination strategies that don’t have overlapping toxicities have been explored. These include combinations with angiogenesis inhibitors that can induce a BRCA-like state in the cells. Bevacizumab (Avastin) and cediranib are 2 such agents that are currently in ongoing trials.

Related Videos
Emmanuel Antonarakis, MD, associate director, Translational Research, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Clark Endowed Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School
Gautam Jha, MD, medical director, M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic and the Advanced Treatment Center at the M Health Fairview Clinics and Surgery Center—Minneapolis, chair, cancer committee, M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital
Ricardo D. Parrondo, MD, hematologist/oncologist, Mayo Clinic
Ilyas Sahin, MD
Raj Singh, MD
Jaime R. Merchán, MD, professor, co-leader, Translational and Clinical Oncology Research Program, director, Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program, Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Saad J. Kenderian, MB, CHB
Tycel Phillips, MD
Minesh Mehta, MD
Shivaani Kummar, MBBS, FACP, Margaret and Lester DeArmond Endowed Chair of Cancer Research, Professor and Division Head, Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine; co-director, Center for Experimental Therapeutics, co-deputy director, Knight Cancer Institute