TRIUMPH: phase II trial of rucaparib monotherapy in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer harboring germline homologous recombination repair gene mutations

Background: The activity of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) in patients with homologous recombination repair (HRR) mutations and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has been established. We hypothesized that the benefit of PARPi can be maintained in the absence of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in an HRR-mutated population. We report the results of a phase II clinical trial of rucaparib monotherapy in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC).

Methods: This was a multi-center, single-arm phase II trial (NCT03413995) for patients with asymptomatic, mHSPC. Patients were required to have a pathogenic germline mutation in an HRR gene for eligibility. All patients received rucaparib 600 mg by mouth twice daily, without androgen deprivation. The primary endpoint was a confirmed PSA50 response rate.

Results: Twelve patients were enrolled, 7 with a BRCA1/2 mutation and 5 with a CHEK2 mutation. The confirmed PSA50 response rate to rucaparib was 41.7% (N = 5/12, 95% CI: 15.2-72.3%, one-sided P = .81 against the 50% null), which did not meet the pre-specified efficacy boundary to enroll additional patients. In patients with measurable disease, the objective response rate was 60% (N = 3/5), all with a BRCA2 mutation. The median radiographic progression-free survival on rucaparib was estimated at 12.0 months (95% CI: 8.0-NR months). The majority of adverse events were grade ≤2, and expected.

Conclusion: Rucaparib can induce clinical responses in a biomarker-selected metastatic prostate cancer population without concurrent ADT. However, the pre-specified efficacy threshold was not met, and enrolment was truncated. Although durable responses were observed in a subset of patients, further study of PARPi treatment without ADT in mHSPC is unlikely to change clinical practice.