FDA Approves New Ovarian Cancer Drug

December 23, 2014

(Los Angeles Times) – Opening a new chapter in the use of genomic science to fight cancer, the Food & Drug Administration on Friday approved olaparib, a medication for advanced ovarian cancer associated with a defective BRCA gene. The new drug, to be marketed under the commercial name Lynparza, was found in a preliminary clinical trial to shrink or eliminate ovarian tumors in women whose cancers bore a specific genetic fingerprint and who had undergone at least three prior lines of chemotherapy.