Study of KRAS new predictive marker in a clinical laboratory.

Background The presence of somatic mutations in the KRAS gene has been identified as a reliable strong negative predictor for the response to targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and the use of anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies such as Cetuximab and Panitumumab is now restricted to patients with no detectable KRAS mutations. Between 30 and 40 % of colorectal cancers contain a mutated KRAS oncogene. The aim of this study was to evaluate concordance between three methods to analyze KRAS mutational status in regard to clinical testing.