An orally bioavailable inhibitor of the nuclear enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) with potential antineoplastic activity. PARP inhibitor AZD2461 selectively binds to PARP and prevents PARP-mediated DNA repair of single strand DNA breaks via the base-excision repair pathway. This enhances the accumulation of DNA strand breaks and promotes genomic instability and eventually leads to apoptosis. PARP catalyzes post-translational ADP-ribosylation of nuclear proteins that signal and recruit other proteins to repair damaged DNA and is activated by single-strand DNA breaks.