A recent example in this field is the finding that patients with familial breast and ovarian cancer carrying mutations in the BRCA1 gene are more sensitive to drugs called inhibitors of PARP (poly-adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase) protein. The problem is that only four out of every hundred breast cancer patients would benefit from this treatment because the BRCA1 mutation occurs infrequently.

The official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Journal of Clinical Oncology has published a study coordinated by Manel Esteller, director of the Program for Epigenetics and Cancer Biology at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), which extends the number of patients eligible for this treatment.

Dr. Esteller’s group has shown that epigenetic inactivation of the BRCA1 gene also confers sensitivity to PARP inhibitors in breast cancer cells. As 25% of patients with breast cancer show loss of BRCA1 gene by this mechanism, one out of four women with breast cancer could benefit from this new personalized treatment.

The study’s authors suggest to include tests for the BRCA1 gene epigenetic inactivation in clinical trials carried out to test the effectiveness of PARP in patients with breast cancer or ovarian cancer.

Paper reference:

Veeck J, Ropero S, Setien F, Gonzalez-Suarez E, Osorio A, Benitez J, Herman JG, Esteller M. BRCA1 CpG Island Hypermethylation Predicts Sensitivity to Poly(Adenosine Diphosphate)-Ribose Polymerase Inhibitors. Journal of Clinical Oncology, August 2, 2010.