Niraparib tied to more toxicities than olaparib in ovarian cancer

Use of niraparib appears to contribute to a higher risk of haematological toxicities as compared with olaparib, suggests a study. The most common haematological adverse event is anaemia.

Ninety patients who received poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors for ovarian cancer from January 2017 to October 2020 were included in this single-centre, retrospective study. Participants were stratified according to which PARP inhibitor they received.

Of the included patients (median age 64.3 years, 71.7 percent White, 91.3 percent had an ECOG PS of 0/1), 31 (33.7 percent) received niraparib and 61 (66.3 percent) olaparib.

Haematologic adverse events occurred more frequently among patients treated with niraparib. Of these patients, 11 (35.5 percent) experienced neutropenia, 20 (64.5 percent) had anaemia, and 18 (58.1 percent) developed thrombocytopenia.

On the other hand, eight patients (13.1 percent) in the olaparib group experienced neutropenia, while 24 (39.3 percent) and 16 (26.2 percent) had anaemia and thrombocytopenia, respectively.

“Over the last few years, targeted therapy has become the mainstay maintenance treatment of patients with ovarian cancer including patients with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations,” the researchers said.

“PARP inhibitors are effective in the treatment of patients who are in complete or partial remission. [These medications] are known to cause haematological adverse events but have not been compared directly to each other,” they added.