Sheffield University. UK: Ovarian cancer patients throughout Europe and the United
States could soon be treated with a new drug discovered through
pioneering research at the University of Sheffield funded by Yorkshire
Cancer Research. Lynparza
has become the first of a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors to
be granted approval by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will now
assess the drug to see whether it should become widely available on the
NHS, with a decision expected in September 2015.
In 2005, Professor Thomas Helleday and his team of researchers at the
University of Sheffield demonstrated how PARP inhibitors could be used
as a tailored treatment for patients with BRCA2 mutations, which are
seen in both hereditary ovarian and breast cancer.
The discovery was patent protected and licensed to pharmaceutical
company Astra-Zeneca who continued the development process and undertook
successful clinical trials.
Professor Helleday said: “I am delighted that after all the hard work
carried out since 2005 when we made the original discovery, Lynparza
has now been licenced by the European Commission and the FDA. 150,000
women in the European Union suffer from ovarian cancer. Last year,
21,980 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States.
Many of these patients will benefit from this new therapy.
“This could not have been achieved without the support of Yorkshire
Cancer Research and the University of Sheffield. It is a fantastic
example of academic institutions and charities collaborating to fund
pioneering research.”
Dr Helen Bryant, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of
Oncology and lead author of the research paper that was published in
journal Nature in 2005, added: “The fundamental science idea and
innovation came from Sheffield and has been taken forward to become a
world first in this type of therapy, offering hope for patients
worldwide.
“This type of innovation in basic research has increased the
visibility of cancer research in Yorkshire and attracted other world
leading researchers to the area. It shows what funding novel laboratory
ideas at the grass roots level can do to change the treatment options
available to patients.”
PARP inhibitors work by blocking the cancer cell’s ability to repair
damage. Healthy cells reproduce by dividing DNA into two strands and
copying each strand. Before they do this, they repair damage in the DNA
using the PARP protein.
If PARP is suppressed, normal cells use a second mechanism for DNA
repair. Some cancers cannot undergo this second process because they
have a mutation in a BRCA gene. These cancer cells rely completely on
PARP to fix the damage and so when PARP is suppressed the BRCA mutated
cell is unable to grow and eventually dies. Normal cells of the patient
with a functioning BRCA are not affected.
The novel element of the treatment is the fact that it is the
mutation causing cancer that is exploited to specifically kill the
cancer; this reduces the side effects often experienced with traditional
anti-cancer treatments.
Clinical trials showed that Lynparza extends the length of time
during and after the treatment of cancer that a patient lives with the
disease without the disease getting worse.
Further clinical trials are currently taking place to see whether Lynparza could be used to treat other cancers.
The approval of Lynparza means that both the University of Sheffield
and Yorkshire Cancer Research will continue to benefit financially from
the work in which they invested in the early 2000s.
Valuable funds could be received by the charity, which will be invested to help cancer patients in Yorkshire.
Charles Rowett, Chief Executive Officer at Yorkshire Cancer Research,
said: “We are incredibly proud that a treatment discovered in Yorkshire
with funding from our charity, then developed with the help of Big
Pharma, is now one step closer to the patient. It’s extremely rewarding
to know that we have made a difference to the lives of people not only
in Yorkshire, but across the world.
“We have been supporting innovative research at our region’s
universities and teaching hospitals for 90 years. The journey from lab
to patient can be long, complicated and uncertain, so a successful
outcome is a very exciting achievement. Not only this, but the financial
benefits which flow from our original investment will undoubtedly have a
huge benefit to our future mission to help more people avoid, survive
and cope with cancer.”