Assessing Frequency and Clinical Outcomes of BRCA Mutated Ovarian Cancer in Saudi Women
Abstract Background: BRCA gene mutations (BRCAm) had an impact on patients' characteristics and clinical outcomes of ovarian cancer (OC). The frequency and patterns of BRCAm vary among countries and ethnicities. There are limited data from Saudi Arabia (SA); thus, this study aims to determine the frequency, pattern, and impact on patient characteristics and outcomes of BRCAm OC compared to wild-type BRCA (BRCAw) in Saudi women.This retrospective study evaluated women diagnosed with non-mucinous OC, fallopian tube, or peritoneal carcinoma who had BRCA status tested in an accredited lab between January 2016 and December 2017. The associations between various parameters and BRCAm were estimated using logistic regression. The objective response rate (ORR) of the first line and subsequent lines for BRCAm and BRCAw were evaluated using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors Version 1. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by Kaplan–Meier methods and compared by log-rank tests.Result: Sixty-one women with a median age of 52 at diagnosis were analyzed. Germline BRCA mutations were found in 41% of cases (25/61). The majority were BRCA 1 (92%), and the most common deleterious germline BRCA1 mutation was c.1140dupG (39%), followed by c.5530del (13%) and c.5095C>T (8%). Most women (72%) had no family history of cancers, all had high-grade serous carcinoma, and 82% had advanced stage at presentation. Regardless of BRCA mutations, an optimal ORR to first-line treatment has been achieved although most cases relapsed after the first line of management (84%) and the majority were platinum-sensitive relapse (85%). The ORR was higher in BRCAm in subsequent lines compared to BRCAw type. BRCAm women experienced longer median DFS (25 vs 17 months, p = 0.02) and a higher five-year OS rate (90.9% vs 66.7%, p = 0.19) than BRCAw.Conclusion: The prevalence of BRCAm of OC was higher in Saudi women when compared with the regional and most of the international figures. The better clinical outcomes of BRCAm women is in concordance with the reported evidence. Further studies on BRCA mutations of OC, education, genetic counseling, and free access to genetic testing are highly recommended.