Matthew J. Weiss, MD
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery by Margonis and colleagues, the presence of a BRAF V600E mutation was associated with a higher risk of recurrence and poorer overall survival among patients undergoing surgical resection of liver metastases from colorectal cancer. Matthew J. Weiss, MD, of the Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the corresponding author for the JAMA Surgery article.
The cohort study included 849 evaluable patients (60% male) who underwent hepatectomy for colorectal cancer liver metastases with curative intent from January 2000 through December 2016 at institutions participating in the International Genetic Consortium for Colorectal Liver Metastasis and who had available data on BRAF and KRAS mutation status. Among all patients, 5.1% had a mutated (mut) BRAF/wild-type (wt) KRAS (V600E and non-V600E) genotype; 56.5% had a wtBRAF/wtKRAS genotype; and 38.4% had a wtBRAF/mutKRAS genotype. Compared with the wtBRAF/wtKRAS group, patients with mutBRAF/wtKRAS were more likely to be female (62.8% vs 35.2%), aged ≥ 65 years (51.2% vs 36.9%), have right-sided primary tumors (62.8% vs 17.4%), and present with metachronous liver metastasis (64.3% vs 46.8%).
Prognostic Associations
On multivariate analysis, the presence of V600E (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.76, P < .001) but not non–V600E BRAF mutation (HR = 1.75, P = .35) was associated with significantly poorer overall survival. Similarly, the presence of V600E (HR = 2.04, P = .002) but not non–V600E mutation (HR = 0.67, P = .48) was associated with significantly poorer disease-free survival. Compared with KRAS mutation, the V600E BRAF mutation, which was the strongest overall prognostic factor for both overall and disease-free survival, had a stronger association with overall survival (β coefficient = 10.15 vs 2.94) and disease-free survival (β coefficient = 7.14 vs 2.27).
The investigators concluded, “The presence of the V600E BRAF mutation was associated with worse prognosis and increased risk of recurrence. The V600E mutation was not only a stronger prognostic factor than KRAS but also was the strongest prognostic determinant in the overall cohort.” ■
