Genetic Profiling of Colorectal Tumors Across Populations

Colorectal tumors can vary in molecular mutations among individuals and communities, according to a new study from Cedars-Sinai Cancer. Investigators reporting in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research concluded that these differences could guide personalized precision approaches to colorectal cancer treatment.

“Colorectal cancers frequently have specific mutated genes, some of which can be targeted with existing targeted therapies,” said Jane Figueiredo, PhD, professor of Medicine and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and co-senior author of the study. “We identified distinct molecular alterations of colorectal tumors that are more likely to occur in some patients based on their genetic ancestry. These results could help us target treatments and better understand differences in treatment response among different patient groups.”

Figueiredo said that molecularly driven therapies for colorectal cancer are rapidly expanding, can already target at least six distinct tumor compositions, and that further studies are needed to identify therapies to target the distinct features identified in this research.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Jun Gong, Nathalie T. Nguyen and Nicole C. Loroña.

Additional authors including Marco Matejcic, Jamie K. Teer, Hannah J. Hoehn, Diana B. Diaz, Kritika Shankar, Domenico Coppola, Clifton G. Fulmer, Ozlen Saglam, Kun Jiang, W. Douglas Cress, Teresita Muñoz-Antonia, Idhaliz Flores, Edna R. Gordián, José A. Oliveras Torres, Seth I. Felder, Julian Sanchez, Jason B. Fleming, Erin M. Siegel, Jennifer A. Freedman, Julie Dutil, Mariana C. Stern, Brooke L. Fridley, and Stephanie L. Schmit.

Cancer Research study funding: Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01CA238087, R01CA155101, U54CA163068, U54CA163071, U54CA233465, U2CCA252971, P30CA014089, R01CA284732, R01CA248931, P20CA252733, and P50CA285275. It was further supported by a Moffitt Cancer Center Team Science Award. This research was also made possible through the Total Cancer Care Protocol and by the Tissue, Collaborative Data Service, Molecular Genomics, and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute; an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center (P30CA076292). Sequencing data was based in part upon data generated by the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN; http://www.oriencancer.org/) and support and coordination by Aster Insights (formerly M2Gen; https://www.asterinsights.com/).