
AstraZeneca’s Camille Hertzka: Olaparib Could Be Practice Changing
Camille Hertzka, vice president, head of oncology, US Medical, AstraZeneca, discusses why so much excitement has been generated for the use of olaparib (Lynparza) in the first line for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.
There is a lot of unmet need in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), so it’s important that we bring newer, more impactful medicine to the frontline setting, emphasized Camille Hertzka, vice president, head of oncology, US Medical, AstraZeneca.
Transcript
How do you expect newer drugs, such as PARP inhibitors, to be received as first-line treatment for mCRPC?
I would say that because Lynparza [olaparib] was already approved in this metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer—it was a monotherapy for selected patient populations—we expect to have a lot of enthusiasm. At the time of the presentation of
In addition to that, the safety profile of olaparib is well known and manageable, which is important when you introduce a new treatment in the first-line setting. Now, I would say that because olaparib is well established in the US as a standard of care in prostate cancer in HRR [mutation] patients, it will really help going beyond to a broader patient population with the first line.
We know that only 25% to 30% of patients in first-line metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer have an HRR mutation, so that means that there is really a lot of unmet need that is remaining in the broader patient population. And
When
With the improvement that we’ve seen in the study, we really believe it’s going to be practice changing and will help so many more patients.
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