Dr. Robson on the Toxicity Profile of Olaparib in Breast Cancer

Mark E. Robson, MD, chief, Breast Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the toxicity profile of olaparib (Lynparza) in breast cancer.

The OlympiAD trial randomized 302 patients with HER2-negative, germline BRCA1/2-mutated metastatic breast cancer to receive 300-mg olaparib tablets twice daily or treatment of physician’s choice. Across the entire trial, the median progression-free survival was 7.0 months with olaparib and 4.2 months for physician's choice of therapy (HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.43-0.80; P <.001).

There were some toxicities associated with olaparib. Robson says that there were relatively low grade 3 toxicities, a fair amount of low-grade nausea, some cytopenia, and myelosuppression. The most significant toxicity was the 16% rate of grade 3 anemia, says Robson, which led to 18% of patients to receive a transfusion.