Biomarkers of Response and Resistance to DNA Repair Targeted Therapies

Drugs targeting DNA damage repair (DDR) pathways are exciting new agents in cancer therapy. Many of these drugs exhibit synthetic lethality with defects in DNA repair in cancer cells. For example, ovarian cancers with impaired homologous recombination DNA repair show increased sensitivity to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Understanding the activity of different DNA repair pathways in individual tumors, and the correlations between DNA repair function and drug response, will be critical to patient selection for DNA repair targeted agents. Genomic and functional assays of DNA repair pathway activity are being investigated as potential biomarkers of response to targeted therapies. Furthermore, alterations in DNA repair function generate resistance to DNA repair targeted agents, and DNA repair states may predict intrinsic or acquired drug resistance. In this review, we provide an overview of DNA repair targeted agents currently in clinical trials and the emerging biomarkers of response and resistance to these agents: genetic and genomic analysis of DDR pathways, genomic signatures of mutational processes, expression of DNA repair proteins, and functional assays for DNA repair capacity. We review biomarkers that may predict response to selected DNA repair targeted agents, including PARP inhibitors, inhibitors of the DNA damage sensors ATM and ATR, and inhibitors of nonhomologous end joining. Finally, we introduce emerging categories of drugs targeting DDR and new strategies for integrating DNA repair targeted therapies into clinical practice, including combination regimens. Generating and validating robust biomarkers will optimize the efficacy of DNA repair targeted therapies and maximize their impact on cancer treatment. Clin Cancer Res; 22(23); 5651–60. ©2016 AACR.

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