Last year, AstraZeneca posted  Lynparza data to break into breast cancer as a front-runner. The company now aims to attain the same reputation in prostate cancer.

Along with new drug partner Merck, the British drugmaker displayed results showing that adding Lynparza to Johnson & Johnson prostate cancer fighter Zytiga was a more potent disease-fighter than Zytiga alone. As compared to a time-frame of 8.2 months for solo Zytiga, the combo effectively prevented disease progression for 13.8 months.

Dave Fredrickson, VP and Global Head of Oncology stated that the data looks very promising, also adding that prostate cancer has emerged as the no.1 disease in terms of occurrence in the globe.

Fredrickson further stated that when one thinks about being a leader in oncology, it is a major value to have programs in prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and GI cancers which are the largest. It is equally important to have these data for prostate cancer.

When it comes to the FDA's approval, AstraZeneca leads its PARP competitors Zejula of Tesaro and Rubraca of Clovis. While the most recent prostate cancer results have been determined from phase 2, Lynparza was set up to become the first PARP in a brand new market.