OLAPARIB: Not a wonder drug, but it helps

Linda and Carolyn, on a nice Bellingham day

Men have prostates, women have ovaries.  Right?  There are, however, similarities.  Both are located in the same general segment of the body, both have a role in reproduction, and both can cause lots of trouble when they develop cancer.  Maybe they develop from the same swatch of embryonic tissue, and proceed along divergent pathways only after the XX/XY thing kicks in*.  So perhaps it should not be surprising that a drug developed for ovarian cancer has proven to be useful in fighting certain types of prostate cancer.  The drug is OLAPARIB.

It turns out that men have defects in the tumor-suppressor genes we call BRCA1/2, most commonly associated with a hereditary predisposition in women to develop breast and/or ovarian cancer.  Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor. And if you can’t remember what that is click on this link:

http://ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com/2014/12/happy-new-year-now-for-little-biology.html

 Olaparib will not cure OVCA, or prostate cancer for that matter, but in certain cases it prolongs remission appreciably.  Every little bit helps.

Here is the link to the news article that initiated this blog: 

http://zeenews.india.com/news/health/health-news/ovarian-cancer-pill-can-help-men_1816548.html

*Nope.  In trying to understand "homologous recombination" I ran on the perfectly obvious fact that "after the XX/XY thing kicks in" the same fetal tissue goes to gonads in men, ovaries in women.  I bet you were worried about that.