Background
Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) is the 5th leading cause of female cancer deaths. Despite high responses to first-line therapy, 5-year survival remains poor at 29%. Rucaparib is a small molecule PARP inhibitor (PARPi) approved as monotherapy for maintenance treatment of recurrent EOC with prior complete/partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy, on the basis of the ARIEL3 trial. Despite the validity of clinical trial evidence, applicability to routine practice is limited and real-world evidence (RWE) is mandated.

Methods
We performed a multi-center retrospective study of patients with advanced EOC receiving rucaparib in the UK from June 2018, via an early access program.

Results
119 patients were included, with a median age of 66 years (range 26-89). Median ECOG at commencement was 1 (0-3). 91% (n=108) had high grade serous carcinoma and 24% (n=29) germline/somatic BRCA1/2mutation (BRCAm). Prior to rucaparib, patients had a median of 3 therapies (range 1-9) with 8% (n=10) receiving an alternate PARPi. Overall progression free survival (PFS) was 7.5 months (1.1-37.4), with a higher PFS of 9.1 months (1.1-35.5) in BRCAm patients. This is lower than observed in ARIEL3. However, if similar inclusion/exclusion criteria are applied to our RWE population, findings are analogous, with PFS of 10.2 and 16.6 months in the overall and BRCAm groups respectively. Treatment-related toxicity (any grade) was reported in 88% (n=105) of patients, most prevalent being nausea, fatigue, anaemia and other blood dyscrasias. 26% (n=32) of patients experienced a CTCAE grade 3/4 toxicity and 58% (n=69) required dose interruption/reduction. 13% (n=16) of patients discontinued therapy due to a treatment related adverse effect: most frequently fatigue, nausea or thrombocytopenia. No haematological malignancies were observed.

Conclusions
Overall we found a lower incidence of any grade and grade 3/4 toxicity, and furthermore equivalent discontinuation rates to ARIEL3. A lower overall PFS and BRCAm PFS was observed. This is likely due to the inclusion of patients with higher ECOG, median age, prior therapy lines and previous PARPi use. However, applying similar inclusion/exclusion criteria to the RWE population, recapitulates similar PFS findings to ARIEL3.

Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.

Funding
Has not received any funding.