Dr. Sereti on the Preclinical Efficacy of NOV202 Plus Olaparib in BRCA1/2-Mutated Prostate Cancer

Evangelia Sereti, MSc, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Urological Cancer, Malmö, Division of Translational Cancer Research, Lund University Cancer Centre, discusses the preclinical efficacy of NOV202 plus olaparib (Lynparza) in BRCA1/2-mutated prostate cancer cells.

NOV202 is an investigational microtubule-targeting and vascular disrupting agent that demonstrated anticancer activity and tumor growth suppression of certain cancers, such as pancreatic and ovarian cancers, in preclinical research. Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor that was FDA approved to treat men with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic homologous recombination repair gene–mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

During the 2021 EAU Congress, findings from a preclinical study evaluating the in vivo anticancer efficacy of NOV202 alone and in combination with olaparib in mouse models harboring BRCA1/2-mutated prostate cancer cells were presented. The results demonstrated that NOV202 alone induced significant anticancer effects in BRCA1/2-mutated prostate cancer xenografts. Additionally, NOV202 plus olaparib elicited significant synergistic effects in these xenografts. Notably, the synergistic effects observed after 3 weeks of treatment were maintained after 2 weeks of no treatment.

As such, NOV202 plus olaparib offers a promising new drug combination for patients with BRCA1/2-mutated advanced prostate cancer, says Sereti. Additional studies are needed to determine the mechanism of action of the synergistic activity observed preclinically, concludes Sereti.