Research progresses of the PARP inhibitors for the treatment of cancer

The poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) is an important group of enzymes in DNA repair pathways, especially the base excision repair (BER) for DNA single-strand breaks (SSBs) repair.  Inhibition of PARP in DNA repair-defective tumors (like those with BRAC1/2 mutations) can lead to cell death and genomic instability, what is so called “synthetic lethality”.  Currently, PARP inhibitors combined with cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of BRCA-1/2 deficient cancers are in the clinical development.  In this review, we will be focused on the development of combination application of PARP inhibitors with other anticancer agents in clinical trials.