The Presence of Circulating Tumor DNA in Ovarian Cancer Patients After Platinum-Based Chemotherapy

OBJECTIVES: Platinum-based chemotherapies are effective for the treatment of patients with advanced ovarian cancer. However, most patients relapse and require secondary treatment. Niraparib is a selective poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor approved for the maintenance treatment of women with recurrent ovarian cancer who demonstrate a complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) to platinum-based chemotherapy; approval was based on results from the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial (NCT01847274). In part, the magnitude of response to niraparib correlates with the presence of mutations in homologous recombination repair (HRR) genes such as BRCA1/2. During development of a blood test to identify patients with mutations in BRCA1/2 and 16 other HRR genes using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), we evaluated residual blood samples from patients with a CR or PR to platinum-based chemotherapy in the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial.