Olaparib (Lynparza)

Olaparib is a type of tablet. It is used to treat prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and does not respond to treatments that aim to lower testosterone.

What is olaparib?

Olaparib is a targeted treatment used to treat prostate cancer that has:

  • Spread to other parts of the body and
  • No longer responds to treatment that aims to lower testosterone.
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olaparib

How does olaparib work?

  • Olaparib is a type of tablet called a PARP inhibitor. 
  • PARP (poly-ADP ribose polymerase) is a protein (enzyme) found in cells. 
  • It helps damaged cells to repair their DNA. 
  • DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is found in your cells. It carries genetic information that decides things like eye and hair colour. 
  • PARP inhibitors like Olaparib, block the PARP enzyme.  
  • This means that, the damage builds up in the cancer cells, until eventually they die.
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Illustration showing a cell, chromosome, gene and DNA

Important things to know

 

What are the benefits of olaparib? 

If you take Olaparib, your prostate cancer may take longer to get worse (progress).

When is olaparib used?

You can have Olaparib on its own if you: 

  • Have metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer and  
  • Your prostate biopsies show a faulty BRCA gene. 

You can also have Olaparib with Abiraterone (a type of hormone tablet) and a steroid tablet (prednisone or prednisolone) if: 

  • You have metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer and 
  • You have not previously been treated with hormone tablets for example one of these:
    • Abiraterone
    • Apalutamide 
    • Enzalutamide
    • Darolutamide) and 
  • You cannot or do not want to have chemotherapy and 
  • You live in England, Scotland or Wales. It is not currently available in Northern Ireland. 
Frequently asked questions about Olaparib

Castrate resistant prostate cancer is diagnosed when you are on hormone injections and

  • Your blood testosterone is very low (below 50 ng/dL or 1.7 nmol/L) and 
  • Your PSA is at least 2 ng/mL above your lowest result. Your lowest level of PSA after treatment, is often called the nadir. 
  • Your last three PSA results have risen. They must be checked at least one week apart. Showing two increases by 50% over the nadir. 

    Tube of blood labelled PSA test

or your scans show:

  • Two or more new spots of prostate cancer in your bones or 
  • One new spot of prostate cancer in any other body organ.

 

Brown body showing metastases in the bones and lymph system

What are genes?

  • Genes are found inside cells and are made up of DNA.
  • They are carried from one generation to the next. 
  • They control how our body grows and works. 
  • They are also responsible for things like hair and eye colour.  
  • You get genes from both of your parents.    

     

What are BRCA genes?

  • BRCA genes are important in the fight against cancer.  
  • Sometimes genes can carry faults (mutations). These can be inherited from your parents. 
How DNA mutations cause disease illustration

 

  • If the BRCA genes get a fault it can increase your chance of getting: 
    • Breast or ovarian cancer if you are a female. 
    • Prostate cancer if you are a male.

 

Illustration of a normal cell and a cancer cell

 

If you have not been treated with hormone tablets before:

You do not need to be tested. 

If you have had hormone tablets before:

Tissue from your prostate biopsy or sometimes a blood test, can be used to check for faulty BRCA genes.

If you have not had a biopsy before:

Your doctor might advise you have one.  This will be used to check your cancer for a faulty BRCA gene. 

 

5 people with one shaded in darf blue

 

Only about 1 in 5 people with prostate cancer will show a faulty BRCA gene. 

  • Olaparib is usually prescribed by your Oncologist. 
  • You can ask your hospital team for more information. 
Black female doctor prescribing medication for a Black man
  • Olaparib is taken as a tablet.
  • You take two tablets twice a day.
  • This is usually 12 hours apart. 

    Illustration of tablets

Olaparib is a tablet taken by mouth. It should not cause you any pain. 

 

If you are taking Olaparib on its own, you will need to have: Illustration of blood in a test tube

  • Regular blood tests to check for: 
    • Anaemia (low red blood cell count) or, 
    • Any problems with your liver and kidneys. 
  • Regular PSA tests. 

 

If you are taking Olaparib with Abiraterone and Prednisolone, you will need: 

  • Your blood pressure checked at least once a month at first.  
  • A blood test to check your: Illustration of blood in a test tube
    • Kidney function and 
    • Blood potassium and 
    • liver function
  • These will happen every two weeks for the first three months of treatment. Then they will change to monthly. As time goes on, the time between tests may change again.
  • If you are diabetic, your blood glucose will be monitored. This is to check for low blood glucose.  

    Illustration of an MRI scan

  • You may need scans to check how your cancer is doing or how treatment is working. 

 

 

  • You will be able to continue working if you feel able to do so.
  • You will need to take time off work for regular outpatient appointments. 

    White man talking to White doctor in hospital clinic

You will have regular PSA blood tests.   If Olaparib is working, your PSA will either:  Photo of test tube with blood labelled PSA test

  • Lower or  
  • Stop going up as quickly as it was before taking Olaparib. 

If your Olaparib: 

  • Stops working, or 
  • You cant take it due to side effects. 

Other treatments may be available. These will depend on what treatments you have had before and how well you are. 

Possible treatments could be: 

Chemotherapy iconChemotherapy (Visit our page on chemotherapy

Radium 223 iconRadium 223 (Visit our page on Radium 223

Tablets iconLow dose steroid tablets. 

  • You will not be able to father children:
    • While taking Olaparib, or 
    • For three months after the last dose.
  • It is not known whether Olaparib goes into your semen.  
  • While you are taking Olaparib and for three months after your last dose, you must use a condom when having sex with a female. You must do this even if she is already pregnant.  
  • Your female partner must also use a suitable method of contraception. 
  • You must not donate sperm.
  •  You can talk to your healthcare team about using contraception. 

 

Couple snuggling in duvet

About this information

  • This information was published in April 2024. Date of next review: April 2026.
  • References and bibliography available on request.
  • If you want to reproduce this content, please see our Reproducing Our Content page.

What is risk?

  • Risk is the chance something bad could happen when we do something. Even simple things such as walking down the stairs can have risks. But we take risks because we think it will be worth it. We need to think about both the benefits and risks of what might happen when we do something.
  • You should always ask your healthcare team about both the benefits and risks of any treatment.
  • Remember if they tell you about a risk, it doesn‘t mean it will happen to you. They may say one man in ten who has this treatment will have a side effect. But they can‘t tell you if you will be the ‘one’ man who gets this side effect.
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Risk vs Benefit

Very  common side effects

Affects  MORE THAN

Ten men with 1 highlighted in orange

 

Side effects you should report straight away:

  • Feeling short of breath
  • Feeling very tired
  • Pale skin
  • Fast heartbeat.
  • All of these symptoms may mean that you have a low number of red blood cells. This is called anaemia. 

Other very common side effects:

• Feeling sick (nausea)

• Being sick (vomiting)

• Feeling tired or weak

• Indigestion or heartburn (dyspepsia)

• Loss of appetite

• Headache

• Changes in taste of foods (dysgeusia)

• Feeling dizzy

• Cough

• Shortness of breath

• Diarrhoea - if it gets severe, tell your doctor straight away.

Very common side effects that may show up in blood tests:

• Low white blood cell count (leukopenia or neutropenia) which may decrease your ability to fight infection and may be associated with fever.

 

Common side effects

Affects up to

10 men with 1 highlighted in red
  • Rash or itchy rash on swollen, reddened skin (dermatitis)
  • Sore mouth (stomatitis)
  • Pain in the stomach area under the ribs (upper abdominal pain).

Common side effects that may show up in blood tests

  • Decrease in the number of platelets in the blood (thrombocytopenia). These help your blood to clot.  You may notice the following symptoms:
    • Bruising or bleeding for longer than usual if you hurt yourself
    • Low white blood cell count (lymphopenia) which may decrease your ability to fight infection. You may get a fever
    • Increase in blood creatinine - this test is used to check how your kidneys are working

Electronic Medicine Compendium (EMC)

  • The EMC contains the most up-to-date, approved and regulated prescribing and patient information for all UK licensed medicines.
  • You can find more information about the side effects of this treatment in the leaflet that comes with your medicine or from the Electronic Medicines Compendium (this link will open in a new tab).
  • You can see the official patient information leaflet for Olaparib (Lynparza) (this link will open in a new tab).
  • The information on the risks comes from very large clinical studies. These typically involved thousands of people being watched over many years. 
  • There may be local data from your area. You can ask your healthcare team if they have this information too

About this information

  • This information was published in April 2024. Date of next review: April 2026.
  • References and bibliography available on request.
  • If you want to reproduce this content, please see our Reproducing Our Content page.

What is the impact?

  • We asked real visitors to the infopool to share their experience of this treatment. They told us how this treatment had impacted their everyday lives in a number of different areas.
  • The numbers and images below represent how many people said this treatment had impacted them ‘a lot’ in each of the different areas.
  • For example, imagine it says ‘25 in 100’ underneath ‘physical and social wellbeing’. This means that 25 out of 100 people who shared their experience of this treatment told us it impacted their ‘physical and social wellbeing’ a lot. However it would also mean that 75 out of 100 people said it had not impacted them a lot.

Please note: Olaparib is still a fairly new treatment. This means that we do not as yet have enough stories to feed into the images. The images will update as more people share their stories about being treated with Olaparib. 

Physical and social wellbeing

Enjoying activities such as walking or going out to the pub

100 out of 100

Effect on relationships

Ability to make good connections with others

100 out of 100

Sexual activity

Ability to reach sexual arousal, either physically or emotionally

100 out of 100

Sense of self

Knowing who you are and what motivates you

100 out of 100

Wellbeing and quality of life

Feeling good and functioning well in your personal and professional life

100 out of 100

Mental and emotional health

Ability to think clearly, make good decisions, and cope with your emotions

100 out of 100

Fatigue

Feeling of constant physical and/or mental tiredness or weakness

100 out of 100

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