Trial tests breast cancer drug's effectiveness against lung cancer

A new clinical trial that will assess the success of treating patients with advanced lung cancer with a drug developed for fighting breast cancer has been launched. The experimental drug was originally developed as a new treatment for breast cancer but it could prove effective against advanced lung cancer.

The drug olaparib is the latest treatment that was designed for one illness being tested for effectiveness against another, as more drugs are being found to have broader benefits. It will be given to patients who have been diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after they have had chemotherapy treatment. The trial will assess whether the drug slows tumour growth.

More than 100 people from 25 UK hospitals will be involved in the phase II trial. The trial is being funded by AstraZeneca and Cancer research UK through the National Cancer Research Network initiative. It is being coordinated by the Wales Cancer Trials Unit at Velindre NHS Trust in Cardiff and Cardiff University.

Patients will first be treated with chemotherapy and those that respond positively to it will then be given either a placebo or olaparib. Monitoring will then assess whether the drug slows tumour growth and for how long it manages to stop the tumour from growing. 

Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor, which have been found to make it difficult for NSCLCs to repair DNA damage, causing cell death. Around 50 per cent of all NSCLCs are unable to repair DNA damage correctly, which means that PARP inhibitors are able to target this weakness. The drug being trialled is also involved in tests to see if it is effective against stomach and ovarian cancers.

Professor Dean Fennell, the study's chief investigator based at the University of Leicester, said: “We urgently need better treatments for patients with lung cancer – just 30 per cent of them survive for a year after being diagnosed. We hope that using this drug that was originally developed for breast cancer will slow the progression of lung cancer, improving the quality of life for our patients.”