PARP Inhibitors May Have Clinical Utility In HER2-Positive Breast Cancers, University of Alabama at Birmingham Study

Poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, shown to have clinical activity when used alone in women with familial breast and ovarian cancers linked to BRCA mutations, may be a novel treatment strategy in women with HER2-positive breast cancers, according to the results of a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Currently, women with HER2-positive breast cancers are treated with therapies that target HER2. However, many women with this form of cancer either fail to ever respond to these targeted therapies or initially respond to them but then become resistant to their effects.