AACR 2017 | Poster 2033/5 – Testing the combined effects of low dose olaparib plus ibrutinib on Mantle Cell Lymphoma cytotoxicity

On Monday 3^rd April during this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, a poster (2033 / 5) by Adam D. Curtis, from the Eastern Maine Medical Center, Brewer, ME, et al. titled “Testing the combined effects of low dose olaparib plus ibrutinib on MCL cytotoxicity” was presented.

The group aimed to potentially improve ibrutinib therapy for MCL by combining it with olaparib, a DNA damage response inhibitor, and testing the combination in MCL cells in vitro.

Key Highlights:

• Ibrutinib monotherapy is cytotoxic to MCL cell lines but only at high doses (>25μM)
• MCL growth is more sensitive to olaparib that ibrutinib
• Olaparib monotherapy treatment is cytotoxic to MCL cell lines at lower concentrations (10μM) than ibrutinib
• Low doses of ibrutinib combined with olaparib inhibited MCL cell growth more than either drug alone at concentrations <EC50
• The ibrutinib-olaparib combination increases apoptosis and MCL cell death

The poster was concluded by hypothesizing that ibrutinib combined with olaparib potentially could improve response rate and duration in patients with MCL, as well as reducing adverse events.