PARP inhibitor (PARPi) sensitivity is related to tumor-specific defects in homologous recombination (HR). Therefore, there is great clinical interest in tests that can rapidly and reliably identify HR deficiency (HRD). Functional HRD tests determine the actual HR status by using the (dis)ability to accumulate RAD51 protein at sites of DNA damage as read-out. In this study, we further improved and calibrated a previously described RAD51-based functional HRD test on 74 diagnostic formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens (RAD51-FFPE test) from endometrial cancer (EC n = 25) and epithelial ovarian cancer (OC n = 49) patients. We established optimal parameters with regard to RAD51 foci cut-off (≥2) and HRD threshold (15%) using matched endometrial and ovarian carcinoma specimens for which HR status had been established using a RAD51-based test that required ex vivo irradiation of fresh tissue (RECAP test). The RAD51-FFPE test detected BRCA deficient tumors with 90% sensitivity and RECAP-HRD tumors with 87% sensitivity, indicating that it is an attractive alternative to DNA-based tests with the potential to be applied in routine diagnostic pathology.
Keywords: BRCA1; BRCA2; RAD51; RAD51-FFPE test; RECAP test; endometrial carcinoma; homologous recombination deficiency; ovarian carcinoma.