KRAS Mutation Test in Korean Patients with Colorectal Carcinomas: A Methodological Comparison between Sanger Sequencing and a Real-Time PCR-Based Assay

Single-center study on clinicopathological and typical molecular pathologic features of metastatic brain tumor

BACKGROUND

The metastatic brain tumor is the most common brain tumor. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the clinicopathological and molecular pathologic features of brain metastases (BM).

METHODS

A total of 269 patients were diagnosed with BM through surgical resection at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital from January 2010 to March 2020. We reviewed the clinicopathological features and molecular status of primary and metastatic brain tissues using immunohistochemistry and molecular pathology results.

RESULTS

Among 269 patients, 139 males and 130 females were included. The median age of primary tumor was 58 years (range, 13 to 87 years) and 86 patients (32.0%) had BM at initial presentation. Median BM free interval was 28.0 months (range, 1 to 286 months). The most frequent primary site was lung 46.5% (125/269), and followed by breast 15.6% (42/269), colorectum 10.0% (27/269). Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation was found in 50.8% (32/63) and 58.0% (40/69) of lung primary and BM, respectively. In both breast primary and breast cancer with BM, luminal B was the most frequent subtype at 37.9% (11/29) and 42.9% (18/42), respectively, followed by human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 with 31.0% (9/29) and 33.3% (14/42). Triple-negative was 20.7% (6/29) and 16.7% (7/42), and luminal A was 10.3% (3/29) and 7.1% (3/42) of breast primary and BM, respectively. In colorectal primary and colorectal cancer with BM, KRAS mutation was found in 76.9% (10/13) and 66.7% (2/3), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

We report the clinicopathological and molecular pathologic features of BM that can provide useful information for understanding the pathogenesis of metastasis and for clinical trials based on the tumor's molecular pathology.

The current understanding on the impact of KRAS on colorectal cancer

KRAS (kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene) is a member of the RAS family. KRAS mutations are one of most dominant mutations in colorectal cancer (CRC). The impact of KRAS mutations on the prognosis and survival of CRC patients drives many research studies to explore potential therapeutics or target therapy for the KRAS mutant CRC. This review summarizes the current understanding of the pathological consequences of the KRAS mutations in the development of CRC; and the impact of the mutations on the response and the sensitivity to the current front-line chemotherapy. The current therapeutic strategies for treating KRAS mutant CRC, the difficulties and challenges will also be discussed.

Droplet digital PCR revealed high concordance between primary tumors and lymph node metastases in multiplex screening of KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer

The proto-oncogene KRAS belongs among the most frequently mutated genes in all types of cancer and is also very important oncogene related to colorectal tumors. The detection of mutations in this gene in primary tumor is a predictive biomarker for the anti-EGFR therapy in metastatic CRC (mCRC); however, the patients with wild-type KRAS can also show resistance to the personalized medicine. The droplet-based digital PCR technology has improved the analytical sensitivity of the mutations detection, which led us to the idea about the optimization of this approach for KRAS testing. In this study, we report the application of ddPCR technology in order to analyze the presence of KRAS mutations in primary tumor and matched metastasis in lymph nodes (LNs) from patients with mCRC and address the question, whether the improvement in the detection method can lower the discrepancies of KRAS mutations detection between the primary tumor and regional LNs. Genomic DNA with wtKRAS and commercial DNA with mtKRAS (G12D) were used to set up the ddPCR reaction. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues from primary tumor and positive lymph node from 31 patients with mCRC were analyzed using ddPCR and Sanger sequencing. KRAS status of primary tumors was known; however, the mutation status of lymph nodes was not detected previously. From 31 samples of primary tumors, our results corresponded to results from IVD kit in 30 cases. For one patient, ddPCR detected KRAS mutation in comparison with negative result of the IVD kit. In the samples of metastatic infiltrated LNs, ddPCR detected 16 samples as a WT KRAS and 15 lymph nodes showed positivity for KRAS mutation, whereby Sanger sequencing found KRAS mutations in 8 cases only. We also found two cases where genetic conditions of KRAS gene differed between primary tumor and infiltrated lymph node, both "low-grade" adenocarcinoma. Our study approved that ddPCR method is adequate technique with high sensitivity and in the future may be used as a diagnostic tool for evaluation of KRAS mutations, especially in infiltrated LNs of patients with mCRC.

CRISPR Technology for Breast Cancer: Diagnostics, Modeling, and Therapy

Molecularly, breast cancer represents a highly heterogenous family of neoplastic disorders, with substantial interpatient variations regarding genetic mutations, cell composition, transcriptional profiles, and treatment response. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for alternative diagnostic approaches aimed at the molecular annotation of the disease on a patient-by-patient basis and the design of more personalized treatments. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) technology enables the development of such novel approaches. For instance, in diagnostics, the use of the RNA-specific C2c2 system allows ultrasensitive nucleic acid detection and could be used to characterize the mutational repertoire and transcriptional breast cancer signatures. In disease modeling, CRISPR/Cas9 technology can be applied to selectively engineer oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes involved in disease pathogenesis. In treatment, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to develop gene-therapy, while its catalytically-dead variant (dCas9) can be applied to reprogram the epigenetic landscape of malignant cells. As immunotherapy becomes increasingly prominent in cancer treatment, CRISPR/Cas9 can engineer the immune cells to redirect them against cancer cells and potentiate antitumor immune responses. In this review, CRISPR strategies for the advancement of breast cancer diagnostics, modeling, and treatment are highlighted, culminating in a perspective on developing a precision medicine-based approach against breast cancer.