Abstract: Poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors can block the repair of DNA single-strand breaks，and BRCA mutation can cause the loss of repair function of DNA double-strand damage in breast cancer cells. Therefore，PARP inhibitors are used to treat BRCA-mutant breast cancer by simultaneously blocking the repair of DNA single-strand breaks and DNA double-strand damage，which leads to the failure of DNA repair，resulting in the death of cancer cells. At present，a variety of PARP inhibitors have been developed that primarily inhibit PARP1 and PARP2 subtypes with high sensitivity and specificity. This review summarizes the mechanism of PARP inhibitors in the treatment of breast cancer with BRCA mutation，and states the progress of several reported PARP inhibitors used alone or in combination with commonly used chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of advanced breast cancer.