Association of TS and ERCC1 mRNA expressions with overall survival in patients enrolled in CONFIRM 1 and 2.

10522 Background: Targeted treatment strategies have been developed to improve survival of patients (pts) with metastatic colorectal cancer. Vatalanib (PTK787/ZK 222584) is an oral angiogenesis inhibitor and was combined with FOLFOX in first- (CONFIRM 1) and in second line (CONFIRM 2) but did not significantly improve progression-free survival or overall survival (OS). There are no molecular prognostic markers for pts with metastatic colon cancer used in the clinic. The goal was to validate our established cut off levels of TS and ERCC1 gene mRNA expressions in these two phase III studies. Methods: 122 mCRC samples of pts (32f /90m; median age 63y; range: 28-83yrs) enrolled in CONFIRM-1 or -2 were included in this study. All pts received either first-line FOLFOX4 (n=29) or FOLFOX4 + PTK/ZK (n=30) chemotherapy or second-line FOLFOX4 (n=37) or FOLFOX4 + PTK/ZK (n=26). After microdissection of the formalin fixed paraffin embedded samples, gene expression was measured using RT-PCR and β-actin as a reference g...