KRAS mutation in colon cancer: a marker of resistance to EGFR-I therapy - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

KRAS mutation in colon cancer: a marker of resistance to EGFR-I therapy

Ahmad D Siddiqui et al. Ann Surg Oncol. 2010 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction and design: The introduction of the epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFR-I) has increased the treatment options available for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Two EGFR-I agents currently approved for the treatment of mCRC are the fully human monoclonal antibody panitumumab and the mouse-human chimeric monoclonal antibody cetuximab. While these agents have demonstrated activity across multiple lines of therapy, early studies suggested that clinical benefit was confined to a subset of patients treated. Mutation of the KRAS oncogene has emerged as a powerful negative predictive biomarker to identify patients with mCRC who do not benefit from EGFR-I therapy. Multiple retrospective analyses have demonstrated that clinical benefit from treatment with EGFR-I is limited to patients with tumors harboring the wild-type KRAS gene. In this review, the KRAS pathway and studies evaluating KRAS as a prognostic marker in CRC are discussed along with advances in KRAS gene mutation testing. Clinical trials evaluating the role of KRAS status in response to EGFR-I monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy are also highlighted along with ongoing studies evaluating the role of EGFR-I treatment on curative resections rates.

Results and conclusion: Future studies investigating EGFR-I therapy in mCRC should incorporate KRAS mutation testing into the study protocol in order to more accurately determine the patient population that will obtain clinical benefit from these novel agents.

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Figures

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

K-ras mutation governs the effects of inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on the Ras/Raf/Mek signaling pathway. a The ligands epidermal growth factor (EGF) or transforming growth factor (TGF)-α activate EGFR signaling leading to phosphorylation of the tyrosine kinase domain. K-Ras adopts a guanosine triphosphate (GTP) bound conformation and through a series of phosphorelays activates ERK. Activation of ERK leads to transcription of genes associated with cell proliferation, survival, and metastasis. b Inhibition of EGFR by the EGFR-I panitumumab or cetuximab leads to K-ras becoming guanosine diphosphate (GDP) bound, which inhibits downstream signaling. c When K-ras is mutated, it adopts a constitutively GTP bound conformation leading to activation of the Ras/Raf/Mek pathway in the presence of inhibition of EGFR. Adapted with permission from Khambata-Ford et al.

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