AstraZeneca Drug Approved for Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy

Breast cancer patients whose tumors have spread—a condition that affects more than 150,000 patients—for the first time have a more personalized treatment option.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Jan. 12 an expanded use of AstraZeneca’s Lynparza (olaparib) to include treating patients with certain types of metastasized breast cancer, whose tumors have an inherited genetic mutation known as BRCA. The new use marks the first time any drug has been approved to treat certain patients with metastatic breast cancer who have a BRCA gene mutation, the agency said, and it’s the first drug in its class approved to treat breast ...