PARP inhibitors are a class of drugs that are a group of pharmacological inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), which plays a role in repairing DNA in damaged cells.
Medical uses of these drugs include the treatment of heritable cancers. Several forms of cancer are more dependent on PARP than regular cells, making PARP (PARP1, PARP2 etc.) an attractive target for cancer therapy. PARP inhibitors appear to improve progression-free survival in women with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, as evidenced mainly by olaparib added to conventional treatment.