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DirectHRD Enables Sensitive Scar-Based Classification of Homologous Recombination Deficiency (HRD)

Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-induced genomic scars are an FDA-approved biomarker for identifying cancers likely to respond to PARP inhibitors. However, detecting HRD scars from blood biopsies has been challenging due to the low tumor content in blood samples. To address this limitation, we developed DirectHRD, a genomic scar-based HRD classifier leveraging whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data for non-invasive blood biopsy testing. DirectHRD was applied to 90 cell-free DNA (cfDNA) samples across four cancer types: breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic. The method achieved an AUC of 0.87 and demonstrated the ability to detect HRD at tumor fractions as low as 1%, offering a tenfold increase in sensitivity compared to state-of-the-art methods.