ASCO: Gene Test May Predict Colorectal Cancer Recurrence

ColoPrint predicts recurrence risk in patients with localized, stage II disease

20 jan 2011-- A novel microarray-based genetic test, ColoPrint, appears to effectively determine the risk of colorectal cancer recurrence among patients with localized, stage II disease, according to a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held from Jan. 20 to 22 in San Francisco.

Robert Rosenberg, M.D., of the University Hospital of the Technical University in Munich, Germany, and colleagues evaluated tumor tissue excised from 233 patients who underwent surgical resection for stage II or stage III colorectal cancer between 1987 and 2003. The investigators used ColoPrint to analyze tumors for the expression of 18 colon cancer recurrence-specific genes.

In 135 stage II patients, the investigators found that ColoPrint identified 73 percent of patients as being at low risk of recurrence, with just 5 percent of them experiencing recurrence within five or more years. ColoPrint identified 27 percent of stage II patients as high-risk, with 20 percent of these patients experiencing a recurrence over a median follow-up of 97 months. The five-year distant-metastasis-free survival was 95 percent for low-risk patients and 80 percent for high-risk patients. The genetic test is currently being prospectively compared to clinical risk factors in an international, multi-center, clinical study of stage II colon cancer patients (Prospective Analysis of Risk Stratification using ColoPrint). The genetic test is also being evaluated among stage III colorectal cancer patients.

"If the results from the ongoing studies validate our findings, we will be able to use ColoPrint in routine clinical practice as a commercially available assay," Rosenberg said in a statement. "Further goals are to combine results of the gene signature test with clinical parameters to further improve patient stratification and to offer individualized therapy options to our patients."

Two authors disclosed financial relationships with Agendia, maker of ColoPrint.

Abstract