AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) has claimed the first positive result by a Parp-1 inhibitor as a treatment for one type of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest to treat as it is very hard to spot and patients often only become aware of the disease when it is too late for effective treatment.
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Lynparza though showed significantly increased rates of survival in the phase III POLO trial.
José Baselga, Astra's head of oncology research, said: "This is the first positive Phase III trial of any PARP inhibitor in germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer, a devastating disease with critical unmet need.
Parp-1 inhibitors stop cancer cells repairing themselves while BRCA-1 and -2 genes are the body's tumour suppressants and mutations of these can significantly increase the risk of occurrence.
"The results of POLO provide further evidence of the clinical benefit of Lynparza across a variety of BRCA-mutated tumour types. We will discuss these results with global health authorities as soon as possible," added Baselga.
Lynparza is being developed jointly by Astra and US group Merck.
"The clinically-meaningful results of this trial potentially support the value of testing for germline BRCA mutations in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer," said Roy Baynes, Merck's head of global clinical development.