Lynparza

Unlike traditional chemotherapy that attacks all rapidly dividing cells, Lynparza is a targeted therapy that specifically kills cancer cells with DNA repair deficiencies. It’s taken orally as 100mg or 150mg tablets, typically 300mg (two 150mg tablets) twice daily with or without food, morning and evening. The medication is available in packs of 56 tablets (enough for 2 weeks at standard dosing), and most patients continue treatment until disease progression or unacceptable side effects develop.

How Lynparza Targets Cancer Cells: Normal cells use two main DNA repair pathways – BRCA proteins and PARP enzymes. Cancer cells with BRCA1/2 mutations already have one broken repair pathway and rely heavily on PARP to fix DNA damage. Lynparza blocks PARP, leaving these cancer cells unable to repair DNA properly. The accumulated DNA damage eventually kills the cancer cells, while normal cells with working BRCA proteins survive since they have backup repair mechanisms. This selective targeting makes Lynparza particularly effective against BRCA-mutated cancers.

Clinical trials showed Lynparza significantly improved progression-free survival across multiple cancer types. For newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer with BRCA mutations, patients taking Lynparza as maintenance after chemotherapy went longer without disease progression compared to placebo. In metastatic breast cancer with BRCA mutations, Lynparza extended the time before cancer worsened. For pancreatic cancer with germline BRCA mutations, maintenance therapy with Lynparza after first-line chemotherapy significantly delayed progression. In metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with BRCA or ATM mutations, Lynparza improved progression-free survival in patients who had failed prior hormone therapy.

Approved Indications: Lynparza treats advanced ovarian cancer with BRCA mutations as maintenance after response to first-line chemotherapy, platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer as maintenance, and advanced ovarian cancer in combination with bevacizumab for patients with HRD-positive tumors. For breast cancer, it treats metastatic HER2-negative disease with BRCA mutations after chemotherapy, and as adjuvant treatment for high-risk early breast cancer with germline BRCA mutations after completing chemotherapy. It’s approved for maintenance of metastatic pancreatic cancer with germline BRCA mutations that hasn’t progressed after at least 16 weeks of platinum chemotherapy. For prostate cancer, Lynparza treats metastatic castration-resistant disease with BRCA1/2 or ATM mutations that progressed after enzalutamide or abiraterone.

Your doctor will order genetic testing to confirm you have BRCA1/2 or ATM mutations before prescribing Lynparza. Testing can detect germline mutations (inherited from parents) or somatic mutations (occurring only in tumor cells). Not all patients with these cancer types have the mutations that make Lynparza effective, so testing is essential. Similar to patients using Imbruvica or other targeted cancer therapies, genetic testing guides treatment decisions and helps predict response.

Blood Monitoring Requirements: Before starting Lynparza, you’ll need baseline blood counts. Then you’ll have monthly blood tests for the entire first year of treatment, followed by regular intervals afterward as your doctor determines. These tests check for anemia (low red blood cells), neutropenia (low white blood cells), and thrombocytopenia (low platelets). If blood counts drop too low, your doctor may pause treatment, reduce your dose, or provide supportive care like blood transfusions or growth factors. Rarely, Lynparza can cause serious bone marrow problems like myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML), so ongoing monitoring catches problems early.

For patients with kidney problems, the dose is reduced to 200mg (two 100mg tablets) twice daily. Lynparza interacts with many medications through CYP3A4 enzymes, you cannot take it with strong CYP3A4 inhibitors (like ketoconazole, itraconazole, clarithromycin, ritonavir) or inducers (like rifampin, phenytoin, carbamazepine, St. John’s Wort). Avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice completely during treatment as they increase Lynparza blood levels and raise the risk of side effects.

If you’re taking Lynparza for prostate cancer alongside GnRH analog therapy, continue the hormone therapy unless you’ve had surgical castration. For early breast cancer with hormone receptor-positive disease, continue hormonal therapy during Lynparza treatment. Women must use effective contraception during treatment and for one month after the last dose, and cannot breastfeed. Men must use condoms during sex and for 3 months after stopping, and cannot donate sperm during this time. For patients managing multiple medications from bone health or other categories, careful coordination prevents dangerous drug interactions.