
3520 Background: Monoclonal antibodies against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are standard components of treatment algorithms in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). It is already well established that only patients with wild-type KRAS tumors benefit from treatment with an anti-EGFR agent. Pyrosequencing is now used for a precise determination of KRAS mutation burden and a conservative cutoff of 10% was defined as the lower limit of quantification for the assignment of mutation status. Up to now, the impact of low-signal KRAS mutations below 10% on the response to anti-EGFR therapy in mCRC has not been evaluated. Methods: All consecutive patients treated by anti-EGFR for a mCRC between January 2006 and June 2011 have been retrospectively analyzed by pyrosequencing using the therascreen KRAS Pyro Kit (Qiagen). All patients were defined wild-type (WT) for KRAS status using direct sequencing. The PFS data were plotted as Kaplan–Meier curve and compared by the log-rank test. Results: A total of 141 patients treated by anti-EGFR for a mCRC were included in the study. Mean age was 64.1 ± 14.8 years and a majority of patients had synchronous metastases (68.6%). Patients benefited from anti-EGFR in first-line chemotherapy (30.7%), second-line (22.9%), third-line (35%) or later (11.4%). Majority of patients benefited from anti-EGFR combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy (91.4%), mostly irinotecan (78.6%). Using pyrosequencing, 117 tumors had a KRAS WT status and 24 tumors had low-signal mutation, between 2 and 10% (KRAS lowMT). Response rate according RECIST criteria were 13.6% versus 35.4% partial response, 13.6% versus 37.2% stabilization and 72.7% versus 27.1% progression (p<0.01), for KRAS lowMT versus KRAS WT respectively. The PFS was respectively 2.6 ± 0.2 months for KRAS lowMT versus 6.0 ± 0.5 months for KRAS WT (p=0.024). Overall survival was not different between the two groups (27.4 months versus 33.0 months, p=0.4). Conclusions: Patients with tumors harboring KRAS lowMT benefit less of anti-EGFR therapy than patients with tumor harboring KRAS WT. While these results invite to consider low-signal tumors as positives, generalization awaits a large prospective trial.
Male, Base Sequence, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antineoplastic Agents, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Middle Aged, ErbB Receptors, Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras), Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Mutation, Biomarkers, Tumor, ras Proteins, Humans, Female, Neoplasm Metastasis, Colorectal Neoplasms, Aged, Retrospective Studies
Male, Base Sequence, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antineoplastic Agents, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Middle Aged, ErbB Receptors, Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras), Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Mutation, Biomarkers, Tumor, ras Proteins, Humans, Female, Neoplasm Metastasis, Colorectal Neoplasms, Aged, Retrospective Studies
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