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The BRAF mutation is associated with the prognosis in colorectal cancer

  • Original Article – Cancer Research
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

Two members of the Ras/Raf signaling pathway, KRAS and B-raf, are suspected to be involved in the stepwise progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) tumorigenesis.

Objective

We compared the KRAS and BRAF mutation status of CRC patients with their clinicopathological characteristics and examined the effect of mutation status on survival rates.

Methods

DNA was extracted from 164 samples, and the mutation statuses of KRAS and BRAF were assessed using peptide PNA clamp real-time PCR method. The presences of mutation were compared with clinicopathological factors and 5-year survival rate.

Results

Among the 164 CRC cases, KRAS mutation as detected in 71 cases (43.3 %), respectively, with no relationship with clinicopathological factors of the patients. On Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, KRAS mutation was not significantly associated with survival (p = 0.971). BRAF mutation was detected in 26 cases (15.9 %) and not associated with clinicopathological factors of the patients. However, the 5-year survival rate of BRAF mutations was significantly decreased (p = 0.02).

Conclusions

The presence of KRAS mutation did not correlate with the various clinicopathological factors of CRC patients or the survival rate. However, the survival rate was reduced in BRAF-mutated CRC patients. Therefore, BRAF mutation could be an important prognostic factor in CRC patients.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Soonchunhyang University Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Science Research Institute, Soonchunhyang University of Korea, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

    Dongjun Jeong

  2. Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University of Korea, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

    Soyoung Park & Hyungjoo Kim

  3. Department of Hematology and Oncology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University of Korea, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

    Sang Byung Bae & Han Jo Kim

  4. Department of Hematology, Catholic Blood and Marrow Transplantation Center, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Young-Woo Jeon

  5. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University of Korea, 31 Soonchunhyang 6 gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, 330-722, Republic of Korea

    Tae Sung Ahn, Myoung Won Son, Haeil Jung, Moon Soo Lee & Moo-Jun Baek

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  1. Tae Sung Ahn
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  2. Dongjun Jeong
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Correspondence to Moo-Jun Baek.

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Tae Sung Ahn and Dongjun Jeong share joint authorship.

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Ahn, T.S., Jeong, D., Son, M.W. et al. The BRAF mutation is associated with the prognosis in colorectal cancer. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 140, 1863–1871 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-014-1735-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-014-1735-y

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