Recent publications: Study uncovers potential biomarker to predict ovarian cancer response to immunotherapy

While most ovarian cancer patients initially respond well to first-line treatments, approximately 80% will experience a relapse within two years and eventually succumb to the disease. The challenge calls for more effective second and third-line treatments to combat recurrence and chemoresistance.

Recent clinical trials have tested immune checkpoint inhibitors combined with chemotherapy, anti-angiogenic drugs, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors and other targeted therapies for recurrent or treatment-resistant ovarian cancer. However, these trials have shown only small improvements in survival, emphasizing the need to better understand how ovarian tumors interact with the immune system.

Dr. Rodney Rocconi, director of the Cancer Center and Research Institute and Ergon Chair for Cancer Research, along with coauthors, published a study titled, “Repair Assisted Damage Detection as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in ovarian cancer.” In this groundbreaking study, the researchers examined whether repair assisted damage detection could be used as a potential tool for predicting how ovarian cancer patients respond to immunotherapy.

The researchers uncovered that RADD can measure DNA repair without needing mutation or gene expression data. Also, high levels of DNA damage are linked to better survival with Vigil maintenance therapy and are connected to proteins that help cancer avoid the immune system. Furthermore, the continued presence of DNA damage could be a new marker to identify patients who might benefit from Vigil immunotherapy. Lastly, more research is needed to see if this marker works for other immunotherapies as well.

“There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that quantifying DNA damage and repair could be a biomarker for response to cancer immunotherapy.  Despite the outstanding results that we have seen with immunotherapy in cancer, the effectiveness in patients with ovarian cancer has been quite disappointing to date,” said Rocconi. “What’s important about this study is that RADD is a functional assay that can detect this DNA damage in real-time and might be an important biomarker that can identify ovarian cancer patients that could actually benefit from immunotherapy.”

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