Cancer patients with BRCA mutations may be able to take PARP-inhibitors, a type of chemotherapy, to prevent tumours ever appearing, said Professor Herbie Newell, of the University of Sunderland in an article in the Guardian.
The article explores the experiences of the increasing number of patients being given PARP-inhibitors such as olaparib long-term, and surviving for longer than expected due to their effectiveness.
Giving the drug increasingly earlier and for long periods of time was raising the possibility the drugs could be used preventatively in the future, researchers suggested.
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Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
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