Biomarkers to predict the clinical efficacy of bevacizumab in advanced colorectal cancer: KRAS mutational status of circulating tumor cells.

Abstract

e22030 Background: Despite the clinical effects of Bevacizumab (B) in unselected pts with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), the possibility to target the treatment toward specific pt subgroups would improve therapeutic efficacy and cost-effectiveness. The search for non-invasive biomarkers of response to B is of great interest. The number of CTCs and the mutational status of KRAS in primary tumor, have been identified as independent prognostic factors in pts treated with B-based therapy. Methods: This study is focused to a new analytical platform developed in our laboratory that combines the technology of magnetic microbead labelling with the advantages of conventional microscopy for samples very low number of cells. The system is based on a simple, low-cost method, capable of an efficient and selective separation of CTCs from peripheral blood (PB), without pre-labelling or processing samples. This label-free technology is able to release and recover viable CTCs that can be directly transferred into th...