Abstract 4544: A validated diagnostic assay for identifying ovarian cancer patients with deleterious BRCA mutations and high genomic loss of heterozygosity (LOH)
Authors: Sun James X. , Lin Kevin , Li Yali , Gowen Kyle , He Yuting , Milbury Coren , Burns Christine , Luo Jun , Roels Steve , Mehdi Murtaza , Truesdell John , Ma Pei , Ramamurthy Lakshman , Vietz Christine , Beltman Jeri , Harding Thomas , Lipson Doron , Ross Jeffrey , Miller Vincent , Stephens Philip , Doherty Michael , Elvin Julia 
Published: August 2018

Introduction: In patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer, FDA has recently granted approval of treatment with PARP inhibitors (PARPi) in patients harboring deleterious BRCA mutations (~25% of population). However, there is clear evidence of “BRCA-like” patients who respond to PARPi without BRCA mutations. To identify such patients, it has been shown that deficiency in homologous recombination repair leads to a common phenotype of genome-wide loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Depending on the cutoff employed, genomic LOH could identify more than twice the number of ovarian cancer patients who could benefit from PARPi than measuring BRCA alone. We present here an NGS-based platform developed and performed in compliance with FDA 21 CFR part 820. The assay provides a tumor measurement of BRCA1/2 (FDA-approved as FoundationFocus CDx BRCA) as well as genomic LOH, and is on the same platform as the comprehensive FoundationOne CDx, which interrogates 324 genes. Methods: DNA extracted from FFPE tumor tissue underwent whole-genome shotgun library construction and hybridization-based capture, followed by sequencing using Illumina HiSeq 4000. Sequence data were processed using a proprietary analysis pipeline designed to detect base substitutions, indels, copy number alterations (CNA), genomic rearrangements, microsatellite instability (MSI), and tumor mutational burden (TMB). A genome-wide LOH profile based on SNPs is measured as part of the CNA pipeline, and is summarized as the percentage of the tumor genome displaying LOH (scored from 0-100%), with ≥16% being considered LOH high based on clinical data derived from ARIEL2 Part 1, a phase II study of the PARPi rucaparib for the treatment of platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (ARIEL2; NCT01891344) Results: For analytical validity, BRCA limit of detection (LoD) was at allele frequency 5.9% for substitutions and non-repetitive indels, and 30% tumor content for LOH. Overall percent agreement with comparator NGS assay was 97.3% for BRCA. No orthogonal platform concordance was established for LOH as no validated test exists. Within-assay reproducibility was measured with overall concordance of 100% for BRCA, and 98% for LOH. Conclusion: We developed a novel diagnostic assay (in compliance with FDA 21 CFR part 820) that can measure BRCA and genomic LOH simultaneously, and established robust analytical validation data.

Citation Format: James X. Sun, Kevin Lin, Yali Li, Kyle Gowen, Yuting He, Coren Milbury, Christine Burns, Jun Luo, Steve Roels, Murtaza Mehdi, John Truesdell, Pei Ma, Lakshman Ramamurthy, Christine Vietz, Jeri Beltman, Thomas Harding, Doron Lipson, Jeffrey Ross, Vincent Miller, Philip Stephens, Michael Doherty, Julia Elvin. A validated diagnostic assay for identifying ovarian cancer patients with deleterious BRCA mutations and high genomic loss of heterozygosity (LOH) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4544.