Meat consumption and BRAF mutation status in colorectal cancer.
e15135 Background: Consumption of red and processed meat has been associated with increased risk of developing colorectal cancers, but less is known about the association of meat consumption with tumor molecular features. In this study, we tested the association of total meat consumption with molecular features of colorectal cancer and overall survival in a local cohort of patients. Methods: Data on meat consumption were collected using self-directed environmental surveys from patients with stage IV/locally advanced, treatment refractory colorectal cancer who were enrolled on the Assessment of Targeted Therapies Against Colorectal Cancer clinical protocol. Data on tumor molecular features were collected through medical record review. Patients were categorized into low, medium or high meat consumption groups based on servings per day tertile. Associations between tumor molecular features and meat intake were evaluated by Chi-square and logistic regression. Potential effects of meat consumption on overall survival were assessed using Cox Proportional Hazards models. Analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS v25. Results: Patients consumed an average of 0.74, 1.57 and 3.32 servings of meat per day in the low, medium and high categories, respectively. Out of 593 patients with evaluable data, 27 were found to have a BRAF V600E mutation. Total meat consumption differed significantly by BRAF V600E mutation status (p value 0.02) and by sex (p value < .01), but did not differ by tumor location, microsatellite instability, or RAS mutation status. Using logistic regression, we found that compared to patients with the highest level of meat consumption, those in the medium consumption group may be less likely to have a BRAF V600E mutation (OR 0.24; p value 0.08). Although meat consumption may be associated with BRAF mutation status, it was not predictive of overall survival in our analyses. Conclusions: Among patients in our study, meat consumption may be associated with tumor BRAF V600E mutation status but is not directly associated with survival. Additional work is needed to test this association in cohorts including more BRAF mutant cases. If confirmed, this finding may add further insight into the etiology and biology of these tumors.