Are Lynparza/Olaparib (Lipdrox) tablets a chemotherapy drug or a targeted drug?

Olaparib is a targeted drug that is not a traditional chemotherapy drug. Although olaparib plays an important role in cancer treatment, unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs, olaparib's mechanism of action is not to inhibit tumor growth by broadly killing rapidly dividing cells, but to achieve its anti-cancer effect by precisely targeting the DNA repair mechanism inside tumor cells.

Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor. PARP is the abbreviation of "Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase" and is involved in repairing DNA single-strand breaks. Under normal circumstances, PARP helps repair damaged DNA and maintain normal cell function. However, in many cancer cells, the DNA repair machinery malfunctions, causing the cell's genome to become unstable. By inhibiting PARP, olaparib interferes with the DNA repair function of tumor cells, making cancer cells unable to repair DNA damage, leading to cancer cell death.

Unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs, which typically treat cancer by destroying rapidly dividing cells. Although chemotherapy drugs are effective against some tumors, they often affect other rapidly dividing normal cells in the body, causing more serious side effects. Lynparza reduces the impact on normal cells by targeting the DNA repair mechanism in tumor cells. Therefore, olaparib usually has milder side effects than chemotherapy drugs, and its killing effect on cancer cells is more sustained.

Olaparib is currently widely used to treat ovarian cancer, breast cancer and other types of cancer with BRCA gene mutations, especially for patients who still relapse or progress after traditional chemotherapy. Lynparza's targeted therapy strategy has made it an indispensable part of modern cancer treatment, especially showing great potential in the treatment of hereditary cancers.

Keyword tags: olaparib, Olaparib, targeted drugs, PARP inhibitors, chemotherapy drugs, DNA repair, cancer treatment, BRCA gene, ovarian cancer, breast cancer

Reference materials:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4693566/