Overview of Rucaparib’s Use in Patients with Ovarian Cancer

Pharmacy Times interviewed Thomasina Morris, RPh, MHA, BCOP, pharmacist at Moffitt Cancer Center, on how rucaparib is used to treat patients with ovarian cancer.

Thomasina Morris: So, rucaparib is used in treating our ovarian cancer patients in 2 different modalities. First, you have rucaparib that was approved in 2016, and at that time, it was pretty much on germ cell and somatic cell BRCA mutations, but for patients who had previously been treated with more than 2 previous chemotherapies.

Then rucaparib got approved in 2018. When it got approved in 2018, it was approved for current ovarian cancer, and patients had to have either a complete response or partial response to platinum sensitive chemotherapy.

So, in essence, it allowed rucaparib to be used in 2 different arenas in our ovarian cancer patients, which actually is a true benefit of a PARP inhibitor for us at this point in time.