Dr. Garcia on the Future Role of PARP inhibitors

Agustin A. Garcia, MD, associate professor of medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, discusses the future role of PARP inhibitors for patients with ovarian cancer and breast cancer.

Garcia says PARP inhibitors will mainly be used in the management of patients whose tumors have BRCA deficiencies or germline mutations in the BRCA 1 or 2 genes. Patients who don’t have a germline mutation of BRCA but still have some functionaldeficiencies in their tumors, known as “BRCAness,” may also respond well to PARP inhibitors, Garcia suggests. However, there are currently no diagnostic tests to identify these patients. In general, Garcia notes, BRCAness typically occurs in some patients with triple-negative breast cancer or patients with serous ovarian cancer.

Garcia says PARP inhibitors are currently being developed for patients with germline BRCA mutations as well as the BRCAness patients. Hopeful, Garcia says, one of these agents will be approved in the near future. These drugs are promising for patients with BRCA-mutations and those with BRCAness, as long as a diagnostic test to identify those patients can be developed.