Germline BRCA1/2 Mutations: Are They Good Enough to Determine Who Will Respond to Poly(ADP–Ribose) Polymerase Inhibitor Therapy in Advanced Cancer?

Correspondence

..... It remains to be shown what exactly determines the response to PARP inhibitor therapy; Is it germline BRCA1/2 mutations? Is it platinum sensitivity? Is it HRD? Or is it a combination of all? Currently, identification of germline BRCA mutations through a blood test seems to be the only US Food and Drug Administration–approved surrogate marker for HRD. However testing tumor tissue for somatic BRCA mutations as well as for genes associated with HRD may better define the subgroup of patients with cancer who would benefit from a number of PARP inhibitors yet to come into clinical practice. The recent US Food and Drug Administration approval of olaparib for ovarian cancer along with a companion diagnostic blood test of BRACAnalysis CDx (Myriad Genetics Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT) seems to be just the beginning.

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