MicroRNA expression profiling identified miR-31-5p/3p as associated with time to progression in wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer treated with cetuximab but not panitumumab

The aim of our study was to investigate whether miRNAs could serve as predictive biomarkers to anti-EGFR therapy (cetuximab, panitumumab) in patients with KRAS wild-type (wt-KRAS) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In our study, historical cohort of 96 patiens with wt-KRAS mCRC (2006-2009) was included and further divided into exploratory and validation cohorts. Large-scale miRNAs expression profiling was performed on the exploratory cohort of 41 wt-KRAS mCRC patients treated with cetuximab to identify miRNAs associated with time to progression (TTP). The validation was performed on two independent cohorts: 30 patients of wt-KRAS mCRC treated with cetuximab and 25 patients of wt-KRAS mCRC treated with panitumumab.