Anti-tumor activity of olaparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, in cultured endometrial carcinoma cells

PTEN inactivation is the most frequent genetic aberration in endometrial cancer. One of the phosphatase-independent roles of PTEN is associated with homologous recombination (HR) in nucleus. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) plays key roles in the repair of DNA single-strand breaks, and a PARP inhibitor induces synthetic lethality in cancer cells with HR deficiency.