Combined mutational analysis of KRAS, NRAS and BRAF genes in Indian patients with colorectal carcinoma

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an excellent candidate for targeted therapy in colorectal cancer. Recent studies have demonstrated that apart from wild-type KRAS, a wild-type BRAF and NRAS genotype is required for response to anti-EGFR therapy. This suggests that NRAS and BRAF genotype criteria should be used together with KRAS genotype to select patients who will likely benefit from anti-EGFR therapy. We investigated the prevalence of mutations in the KRAS, BRAF and NRAS genes and its correlation with demographic characteristics, tumor location and stage in 100 colorectal carcinoma patients from India. The frequency of KRAS, BRAF and NRAS mutations was found to be 23%, 17% and 2.0%, respectively. There was no significant difference in KRAS, NRAS and BRAF mutation with respect to gender, age, tumor location (colon vs rectum) and clinicopathological stage. In addition, we found a novel point variant (T20I) of unknown significance in NRAS exon 1 in addition to a KRAS codon 12 mutation in one of the rectal carcinoma patients. In the present study, combined evaluation of genetic biomarkers (KRAS, NRAS and BRAF) was able to classify 42% of colorectal cancer patients as likely non-responders to anti-EGFR therapy.