Treatment of BRCA1/2 Hereditary BRCA1/2 and Sporadic Breast Cancer with Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors and Chemotherapy

摘要

Each year there are over 200,000 new cases of breast cancer in the U.S. alone. Current chemotherapeutic therapies are highly toxic and relatively non-specific. BRCA1 and BRCA2 hereditary breast cancers are responsible of the about 10% of the breast cancer cases. In is addition it is unknown whether current therapies adequately address differences between BRCa1 hereditary and sporadic breast cancers. In this study, we look at a new class of anti-cancer drugs called PARP-1 inhibitors that inhibit the repair of damaged DNA. These drugs may be useful alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer due to the inherent genetic instability of most breast cancer cells. Here, we show a difference in sensitivity to PARP1 inhibitors by different breast cancer types and enhancement of the cytotoxicity of standard chemotherapy without an addition to toxicity. This data may set the basis for future clinical trials.