Genomic attributes of homology-directed DNA repair deficiency in metastatic prostate cancer

• DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.152789
• Publication Date: 2021-12-07T19:00:50Z
• Authors: Navonil De Sarkar; Sayan Dasgupta; Payel Chatterjee; Ilsa Coleman; Gavin Ha; Lisa S. Ang; Emily A. Kohlbrenner; Sander B. Frank; Talina A. Nunez; Stephen J. Salipante; Eva Corey; Colm Morrissey; Eliezer Van Allen; Michael T. Schweizer; Michael C. Haffner; Radhika Patel; Brian Hanratty; Jared M. Lucas; Ruth F. Dumpit; Colin C. Pritchard; Robert B. Montgomery; Peter S. Nelson
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; R; Prostatic Neoplasms; Genomics; DNA Repair-Deficiency Disorders; 3. Good health; Disease Models, Animal; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Oncology; Medicine; Animals; Humans; Neoplasm Metastasis; Research Article

Cancers with homology-directed DNA repair (HRR) deficiency exhibit high response rates to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) and platinum chemotherapy. Though mutations disrupting BRCA1 and BRCA2 associate with HRR deficiency (HRRd), patterns of genomic aberrations and mutation signatures may be more sensitive and specific indicators of compromised repair. Here, we evaluated whole-exome sequences from 418 metastatic prostate cancers (mPCs) and determined that one-fifth exhibited genomic characteristics of HRRd that included Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer mutation signature 3. Notably, a substantial fraction of tumors with genomic features of HRRd lacked biallelic loss of a core HRR-associated gene, such as BRCA2. In this subset, HRRd associated with loss of chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 1 but not with mutations in serine-protein kinase ATM, cyclin dependent kinase 12, or checkpoint kinase 2. HRRd genomic status was strongly correlated with responses to PARPi and platinum chemotherapy, a finding that supports evaluating biomarkers reflecting functional HRRd for treatment allocation.