EMBRACE is a Phase II clinical trial of the PARP inhibitor, olaparib, in HR-deficient metastatic breast and relapsed ovarian cancer in patients without germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2.

A patient must be either:

• Platinum sensitive (recurrent) high grade serous ovarian cancer; or
• Triple negative breast cancer.

The aim is to determine if tumours with somatic inactivating mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2, germline or somatic inactivating mutations in other genes involved in repairing homologous recombination defects (e.g. PALB2, CHEK2, ATM, RAD51), or somatic BRCA1 gene silencing by promoter methylation are similarly susceptible to PARP inhibition as tumours with germline inactivating mutations of BRAC1 or BRAC2.

Patient samples are tested for these mutations as part of screening for entry into this trial.

The trial is led by Dr Katrin Sjoquist with support from ANZGOG and BCT. The study was developed through the Genomics Cancer Clinical Trials Initiative (GCCTI).

For further trial info click here.