Dr. Hays on Combining PARP Inhibitors With Immunotherapy in Ovarian Cancer

John Hays, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—James, discusses investigational combinations of PARP inhibitors and immunotherapy in ovarian cancer.

The phase I/II TOPACIO/KEYNOTE-162 trial enrolled patients with BRCA mutations and BRCA wild-type ovarian cancer to receive the combination of niraparib (Zejula) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). The objective response rate (ORR) in the BRCA-mutant population was similar to treatment with a PARP inhibitor alone. However, patients without BRCA mutations, and those who didn't have homologous recombination deficiencies, had a significantly higher ORR than would be expected with either agent alone.

In the phase I/II MEDIOLA trial, patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer who harbored germline BRCA mutations received the combination of olaparib (Lynparza) and durvalumab (Imfinzi). The ORR with the combination was 75%, suggesting that immunotherapy could have a role even in pretreated populations, concludes Hays.