Rucaparib

Key takeaways

Rucaparib belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rucaparib to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rucaparib from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rucaparib, sold under the brand name Rubraca, is a PARP inhibitor used as an anti-cancer agent. Rucaparib is a first-in-class pharmaceutical drug targeting the DNA repair enzyme poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1). It is taken by mouth. The most common side effects include tiredness or weakness, nausea (feeling sick), increased levels of creatinine (which may indicate kidney problems) and liver enzymes in the blood (which may indicate liver damage), vomiting, anaemia (low red blood cell counts), decreased appetite, dysgeusia (taste disturbances), diarrhoea, thrombocytopenia (low levels of platelets) and abdominal pain (belly ache).

Medical uses Rucaparib is indicated as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of adults with platinum-sensitive relapsed high-grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in response (complete or partial) to platinum-based chemotherapy. In the United States, rucaparib is also indicated for the treatment of prostate cancer. In December 2025, rucaparib received regular approval in the US for the treatment of adults with a deleterious BRCA mutation (BRCAm) (germline and/or somatic)-associated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) previously treated with an androgen receptor-directed therapy.

Pharmacology

Mechanism of action Rucaparib inhibits "the contraction of isolated vascular smooth muscle, including that from the tumours of cancer patients. It also reduces the migration of some cancer and normal cells in culture." As a PARP inhibitor, rucaparib is expected to be more effective in the 9% of pancreatic cancers with a BRCA mutation (BRCA1 or BRCA2).

History It was discovered as part of a collaboration between scientists working at the Northern Institute of Cancer Research and Medical School of Newcastle University and Agouron Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, California. It was being developed by Clovis Oncology until it was sold to Pharmaand GmbH (Pharma&) as part of Clovis's bankruptcy proceedings.

Society and culture

Legal status In December 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an accelerated approval for use in cases of pretreated advanced ovarian cancer. It was designated an orphan medicinal product in the European Union in October 2012. In March 2018, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a conditional marketing authorization, intended for the treatment of relapsed or progressive ovarian cancer. It was approved for medical use in the European Union in May 2018.

Research

Clinical trials After the FDA approval, TRITON2 and TRITON3 mCRPC studies were initiated in order to determine how patients with prostate cancer will respond to the rucaparib drug. The studies for these two trials are still going on and the estimated dates for the first results are range between 2019 and 2022. The ARIEL3 and ARIEL4 are two randomized, double-blind phase III studies. The ARIEL3 study was designed to evaluate the effect of the investigational agent as a maintenance treatment for the advanced platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients compared placebo after their response to at least two prior chemotherapies. The top-line results from the study were presented at the ESMO 2017 congress and right after that, it was published in the Lancet journal in September 2017. The findings showed significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients treated with Rubraca than placebo. Recently, in October 2017, a supplemental sNDA for the rucaparib ARIEL3 maintenance treatment has been submitted to the FDA. Interim results from the ARIEL4 study to evaluate how patients will best respond to treatment with rucaparib compared with chemotherapy show a decrease in overall survival compared to standard of care. A detrimental effect in terms of overall survival (OS) has been observed for rucaparib compared to the chemotherapy-containing control arm (19.6 months and 27.1 months respectively with a Hazard Ratio (HR) of 1.550 (95% CI: 1.085, 2.214), p=0.0161) following a planned interim analysis (IA) in the post-approval randomized controlled study CO-338-043 (ARIEL4).

References

External links Clinical trial number NCT01968213 for "A Study of Rucaparib as Switch Maintenance Following Platinum-Based Chemotherapy in Patients With Platinum-Sensitive, High-Grade Serous or Endometrioid Epithelial Ovarian, Primary Peritoneal or Fallopian Tube Cancer (ARIEL3) " at ClinicalTrials.gov "Rubraca (rucaparib): restriction of indication". European Medicines Agency (EMA). 8 August 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rucaparib

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rucaparib claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rucaparib before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rucaparib ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rucaparib

In research: Rucaparib appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rucaparib in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rucaparib is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Benzazepines, CYP2D6 inhibitors, Cancer treatments, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rucaparib outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Rucaparib in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rucaparib means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rucaparib out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rucaparib in simple terms?

Rucaparib, sold under the brand name Rubraca, is a PARP inhibitor used as an anti-cancer agent. Rucaparib is a first-in-class pharmaceutical drug targeting the DNA repair enzyme poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1).

Why does Rucaparib matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rucaparib?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rucaparib.