Prognostic effects of circulating markers of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

456 Background: EMT is a phenotypic description of cancer cells that include loss of cell adhesion, increased motility, invasion, and chemoresistance. EMT gene signature is a poor prognostic feature in colon cancer. Circulating markers to decipher the EMT signature in colorectal cancer patients (CRC pts) would therefore be of clinical relevance. Studies have shown that miR-21, IL-6 and IL-8 have been associated with EMT in cancer cells in vitro and their expression has been shown to be highly correlated in primary colon cancer tissue Methods: Plasma samples were obtained from two mCRC cohorts: 120 pts with unresectable metastases, and 91 pts who subsequently underwent partial hepatectomy with curative intent. Circulating levels of IL-6, IL-8 and miR-21 (normalized by miR-16) were measured, and dichotomized using previously published cutoffs. Pts with high levels of ≥2 of 3 EMT markers were categorized as having an EMT phenotype. Survival analysis was by log-rank and proportional hazard. Results: As previo...