A drug approved last year for women with ovarian tumours has shown remarkable benefits in some men with advanced prostate cancer, UK researchers have found in what they say is a “landmark clinical trial” of genetic oncology.

The Institute of Cancer Research in London, which carried out the study with the Royal Marsden hospital and a wide range of funding bodies, said that olaparib — the drug introduced last year by AstraZeneca under the trade name Lynparza — would benefit 25 to 30 per cent of patients with advanced prostate cancer.

These men carry specific genetic mutations that affect their cells’ ability to repair damaged DNA. While this enables cancer to get started, olaparib further disrupts the repair mechanism — causing so much damage that tumour cells can no longer survive, said Joaquin Maleo, lead author of the study, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.