Open AccessNiraparib as maintenance therapy in a patient with ovarian cancer and brain metastases
Author(s) -
Simon Gray,
Xiao ying Khor,
Dennis Yiannakis
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
bmj case reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.231
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1757-790X
DOI - 10.1136/bcr-2019-230738
Subject(s) - medicine , ovarian cancer , debulking , oncology , chemotherapy , malignancy , olaparib , breast cancer , cancer , poly adp ribose polymerase , gene , polymerase , biochemistry , chemistry
Ovarian cancer is the second the most common gynaecological malignancy in developed countries. 70% of patients relapse in the first 3 years following debulking surgery and first-line chemotherapy. Niraparib is a poly adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase inhibitor which uses the concept of synthetic lethality in the presence of a mutation in the breast cancer susceptibility gene ( BRCA ), and is now recommended as maintenance treatment in patients with platinum-sensitive relapse of ovarian cancer. It has been shown to increase progression-free survival. We present a case of a 68-year-old woman with brain metastases from high-grade serous ovarian cancer who has remained free of disease progression for longer than 17 months with niraparib use as maintenance treatment after second-line chemotherapy.