European society for medical oncology and association for the study of bone and mineral research: European society for medical oncology identifying benefited subgroups and promising agents.

gene, however, progression-free survival was nearly doubled in the cetuximab/BSC group at 3.8 months, compared with 1.8 months in the BSC-alone group (P < 0.0001). For the primary endpoint of overall survival, again among patients with mutated K-ras genes, findings were similar: 4.5 months for cetuximab plus BSC and 4.6 months for BSC alone (P = 0.89). For wild-type K-ras, there was a significant advantage in survival when cetuximab was added, as follows: cetuximab plus BSC, 9.5 months; BSC alone, 4.8 months (P < 0.0001). Dr. Karapetis concluded: “K-ras is a marker that predicts who will benefit from cetuximab, and cetuximab does provide survival advantage, but only if the tumor has the wild-type K-ras.”