Genetic alterations predict chemotherapy response:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Identifying certain genetic alterations in colon tumours could help doctors predict the likelihood of a patient responding to chemotherapy after surgery, according to a 460-patient, US study. Stanley Hamilton of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues found that patients with an abnormality in chromosome 18 were less likely to survive five years after chemotherapy than those without the abnormality. Patients with two other markers - microsatellite instability and a genetic mutation in a receptor for transforming growth factor (beta) 1 - had a greater chance of survival, according to the study, which appears in The New England Journal of Medicine (April 19).