Molecular pathological epidemiology of colorectal cancer in Chinese patients with KRAS and BRAF mutations

An investigation of interactive effects of exogenous and endogenous factors and tumor molecular changes can lead to a better understanding of tumor molecular signatures in colorectal cancer. We here report a molecular pathological epidemiology study in a large cohort of 945 colorectal cancer patients. Mutations of KRAS (36.6%) and BRAF (3.46%) were nearly mutually exclusive. KRAS-mutated tumors were more common in female patients (odds ratio [OR] = 1.68; P = 0.0001) and never smokers (OR = 1.60; P = 0.001). Whereas BRAF-mutated tumors demonstrated no discrepancy in aspects of gender and smoking status compared with wild-type tumors. In addition, tumors with BRAF or KRAS mutations were in correlation with elevated serum level of carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9) and carcinoma embryonic antigen (CEA) and the combination of serum biomarkers and molecular mutation status may enhance the more precise risk stratification of CRC patients. Further studies are needed to define the mechanism brought about by the aforementioned epidemiologic and clinicopathologic characteristics that may help optimize cancer prevention and precision therapy.