Dr. Pothuri on PARP Inhibitors for Ovarian Cancer

Bhavana Pothuri, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses PARP inhibitors for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

There is a need for new agents, says Pothuri, and PARP inhibitors are a new class of agents that are now approved. The first PARP inhibitor that was approved was olaparib (Lynparza) in December 2014. Olaparib is approved in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who have had 3 or more prior lines of therapy, and are BRCA-mutation carriers.

It is a very exciting time for PARP inhibitors, states Pothuri. PARP inhibitors are showing promise utilized in ovarian cancer accounts for only about 20% of gynecologic malignancies, but it accounts for over 50% of gynecologic cancer deaths.