Secondary analysis of PAOLA-1 trial of addition of olaparib to bevacizumab maintenance in ovarian carcinoma with BRCA-like genomic aberrations

The multinational PAOLA-1 trial randomized ovarian carcinoma patients with response to first-line chemotherapy to olaparib plus bevacizumab maintenance or placebo plus bevacizumab maintenance for 2 years. The median progression-free survival was significantly longer in the olaparib group than in the placebo group. Secondary analysis of the trial has now been published. Patients with BRCA-like tumors had longer progression-free and overall survival with olaparib plus bevacizumab maintenance compared with placebo plus bevacizumab maintenance. This effect of addition of olaparib to bevacizumab maintenance was not seen among patients with non-BRCA-like tumors. The authors conclude that these findings suggest that the BRCA-like classifier can be used as a biomarker for olaparib maintenance therapy.