Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, told The ASCO Post that he finds the data “intriguing” and that the study exemplifies the value of developing molecular signatures for use in colon cancer.

“It identifies patients with an excellent prognosis, who perhaps should not be further treated,” he said. While the Oncotype DX Colon Cancer Assay also claims to do the same, ColoPrint “spreads out the prognostic groups a little further,” he noted, assigning just two risk groups (low, high) rather than three (low, intermediate, high). “The risk separation is larger than we see with Oncotype DX,” he noted.

But the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score has been evaluated in a much larger series of patients, he acknowledged. In addition, the need for fresh frozen tissue with ColoPrint could be a drawback, he added.

“But, there was a time [in patients with breast cancer] when estrogen and progesterone receptor status was done on fresh frozen tissue, so if we become convinced that this is the right way to go, we could probably adapt,” he added. ■

Disclosure: The Mayo Clinic received research funding for this study and honoraria for Dr. Grothey’s consulting activities from Bayer.