Replication FailureOpen accessMedicine· cited by 9

Pembrolizumab and olaparib in homologous-recombination-deficient metastatic pancreatic cancer: the phase 2 POLAR trial

Wungki Park; Catherine O’Connor; Joanne F. Chou; Marc Hilmi; Zeynep Tarcan; Carly Schwartz; Mary Pat Larsen; Ramzi Homsi · 2026 · Nature Medicine

WASTE classifies this as Replication Failure · AI classification, approximate

A previously reported effect did not replicate here — verify it holds before you build on it.

Abstract

Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) arising from BRCA1or BRCA2 or PALB2 mutations confers sensitivity to platinum chemotherapy and PARP inhibition in pancreatic cancer (PC) and may enable prolonged disease control with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). The phase 2 POLAR trial evaluated maintenance pembrolizumab plus olaparib following platinum-based chemotherapy in biomarker-stratified metastatic PC. Sixty-three participants were enrolled into three cohorts: cohort A (BRCA1/BRCA2-mutated or PALB2-mutated HRD, n = 33), cohort B (non-core HRD, n = 15) and cohort C (platinum sensitive, HRD-

Abstract by Wungki Park; Catherine O’Connor; Joanne F. Chou; Marc Hilmi; Zeynep Tarcan; Carly Schwartz; Mary Pat Larsen; Ramzi Homsi, Nature Medicine (2026) — licensed CC BY 4.0.

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