MINI REVIEW Stumbling Blocks on the Path to Personalized Medicine in Breast Cancer: The Case of PARP Inhibitors for BRCA1/2-Associated Cancers

The popular vision for the future of oncology includes the rational design of therapies inhibiting specific targets, for which development would be less ex-pensive and the chance of success greater because the agent, the target, and a population pre-dicted to benefit maximally would be known from the outset. In the breast cancer arena, successful targeted therapies have entered clinical practice. Recently, patients with BRCA-associated cancers have been identified as eligible for novel investigational therapies targeting their genetic deficiency. Preclinical data, phase I results, and 2 phase II proof-of-concept studies support the continued development of PARP inhibitors, either as single agents or in combination with specific cytotoxic drugs in this setting. In this article, we provide a brief review of current developments concerning PARP inhibitors in BRCA-associated cancers and express concerns about challenges to further development. Summary: PARP inhibitors may represent a new and promising targeted therapy for patients with BRCA1/2-associated cancer. In this review we summarize the main challenges in the clinical development of these agents. Cancer Discovery; 1(1). ©2011 AACR