VEGF pathway inhibition potentiates PARP inhibitor efficacy in ovarian cancer independent of BRCA status

Poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) have transformed ovarian cancer (OC) treatment, primarily for tumours deficient in homologous recombination repair. Combining VEGF-signalling inhibitors with PARPi has enhanced clinical benefit in OC. To study drivers of efficacy when combining PARP inhibition and VEGF-signalling, a cohort of patient-derived ovarian cancer xenografts (OC-PDXs), representative of the molecular characteristics and drug sensitivity of patient tumours, were treated with the PARPi olaparib and the VEGFR inhibitor cediranib at clinically relevant doses. The combination showed broad anti-tumour activity, reducing growth of all OC-PDXs, regardless of the homologous recombination repair (HRR) mutational status, with greater additive combination benefit in tumours poorly sensitive to platinum and olaparib. In orthotopic models, the combined treatment reduced tumour dissemination in the peritoneal cavity and prolonged survival. Enhanced combination benefit was independent of tumour cell expression of receptor tyrosine kinases targeted by cediranib, and not associated with change in expression of genes associated with DNA repair machinery. However, the combination of cediranib with olaparib was effective in reducing tumour vasculature in all the OC-PDXs. Collectively our data suggest that olaparib and cediranib act through complementary mechanisms affecting tumour cells and tumour microenvironment, respectively. This detailed analysis of the combined effect of VEGF-signalling and PARP inhibitors in OC-PDXs suggest that despite broad activity, there is no dominant common mechanistic inter-dependency driving therapeutic benefit. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13045-021-01196-x.