BRAF a new marker? And a New Solution.

Patients with colon cancer have learned over the last two years that we have now a genetic marker which can predict efficacy of antibodies against EGFR which are used in patients with metastatic colon cancer.

We have learned that tumors with mutations in KRAS will not benefit from this treatment. All patients should be tested for KRAS mutation if they have advanced or metastatic disease.

However patients who have mutations of the KRAS gene don’t do worse than patients with wild type. The only difference is that the drugs which target EGFR will not work. Continue reading…

Posted by Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD on June 3rd, 2010
Posted in: From the Desk of Dr. Lenz | No Comments »
Tags: BRAF, clinical trials, Treating Colorectal Cancer

Value of KRAS and BRAF Mutations in Forecasting Survival

For stage II and III colon cancer, a tumor mutation in the KRAS gene does not impact either relapse-free survival or overall survival.

BRAF mutations, which are less common, don’t help with prognosis for relapse-free survival, but do provide information about overall survival in some tumors.   Patients with BRAF mutations and microsatellite-low or stable tumors had poorer overall survival than those without mutations. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on January 5th, 2010
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | 1 Comment »
Tags: BRAF, KRAS, survival

Another Gene Found Linked to Lack of Erbitux/Vectibix Response

Another mutated gene has been discovered that appears to cause resistance to treatment with the EGFR inhibitors Erbitux® (cetuximab) and  Vectibix™ (panitumumab).

Only a fraction of patients who receive Erbitux or Vectibix respond to it.  There is now convincing evidence that the 30 to 40 percent of colorectal cancer patients whose tumors have mutated KRAS genes don’t benefit, but what about others who have normal or wild-type KRAS and don’t respond either?

Scientists in Italy have found that about 12 percent of wild-type patients have a mutation in their tumor’s BRAF gene, and these patients showed no response to Erbitux or Vectibix. Continue reading…

Posted by Kate Murphy on October 27th, 2008
Posted in: Research & Treatment News | No Comments »
Tags: BRAF, EGFR inhibitors, KRAS