At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Prof. Dr. med. Peter Fasching (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany) describes targeting the defect in DNA repair in BRCA-related breast cancer with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.
In BRCA-related breast cancer cells, DNA double-strand break repair is impaired, so inhibition of PARP, which has a role in DNA single-strand break repair, increases the susceptibility for additional DNA damage and cell death. Accordingly, PARP inhibitors may be important novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of BRCA-related breast cancer.
This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical.
