Howard A. “Skip” Burris, III, MD, FASCO, FACP, chief medical officer and president of Clinical Operations at Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and a 2014 Giant of Cancer Care

 in Drug Development, discusses the exploration of PARP inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

The competition among the various PARP inhibitors under exploration makes for exciting clinical trials, according to Burris. Several efforts are being made to integrate these biologics into the treatment of patients with diseases such as TNBC. PARP inhibitors are very effective in those who have inherited or acquired 

-type mutations, or those who have homologous recombination repair deficiency.

Molecular profiling with next-generation sequencing is increasingly being used to identify these patients who are likely to achieve benefit from the addition of PARP inhibitors, adds Burris. The agents have been fairly well tolerated. Several approaches are examining the addition of PARP inhibitors to the TNBC treatment armamentarium, concludes Burris.

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Howard A. “Skip” Burris, III, MD, FASCO, FACP, discusses the exploration of PARP inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr. Burris on the Exploration of PARP Inhibitors in TNBC

Howard "Skip" A. Burris, III, MD, chief medical officer and president, Clinical Operations, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, 2019 ASCO president-elect, and a 2014 Giant of Cancer Care® in Drug Development, discusses the incorporation of biosimilars in oncology.

Biosimilars are here to stay, says Burris. In the past, generics were not as widely accepted as they are today, and the same is likely to be true of biosimilars. Although similar to the originator compound, the agents are not identical due to the nature of how the drugs are manufactured. However, they are put through a vigorous evaluation process to ensure that they fall into an accepted parameter of similarity before they are approved.

Many novel drugs that are coming through the pipeline are going to be expensive, says Burris. The use of biosimilars in the indications for which they are approved could lead to significant cost savings. As such, Burris sees himself as an advocate for biosimilars wherever appropriate.

Howard "Skip" A. Burris, III, MD

Articles

Dr. Burris on the Exploration of PARP Inhibitors in TNBC

Dr. Burris on the Incorporation of Biosimilars in Oncology