AstraZeneca’s Lynparza (olaparib) has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to treat a new subset of breast cancer patients.
The health technology assessment agency has recommended that the drug be used on the NHS in England and Wales to treat adults with HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer with germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations after chemotherapy.
Germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are responsible for approximately 52% and 32% of hereditary breast cancer cases, respectively, and patients carrying these mutations have a 50% chance of passing the gene variant to their children.
Given as a tablet, Lynparza works by inhibiting the PARP enzyme, which helps cells repair damaged DNA. By blocking this enzyme, PARP inhibitors prevent the DNA of cancer cells being repaired, preventing them from growing and spreading.
The drug has been available on the NHS in England and Wales to treat patients with early-stage, high-risk breast cancer with inherited mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 since April 2023.
NICE’s latest decision was supported by positive results from the late-stage OlympiAD trial, which compared Lynparza against standard therapy in patients with a germline BRCA mutation and HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who had received no more than two previous chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease.
Alongside meeting its primary endpoint of median progression-free survival, the study demonstrated that Lynparza-treated patients had a 42% reduction in risk of their disease worsening or death compared to those randomised to receive chemotherapy.
Andrew Tutt, director of the Toby Robins Breast Cancer Now Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research and King’s College London, who was part of the team that developed Lynparza for patients for BRCA-mutations, said: “These results underpinned this positive NICE recommendation, which now provides another important oral targeted therapy option for our patients with this challenging diagnosis.
“This emphasises the importance of accessing genetic testing, so that these targeted drugs can reach the patients who will benefit from them.”
Tom Keith-Roach, president, AZ UK, said the company was “delighted” with NICE’s latest recommendation of the drug.