Gene signatures associated with drug resistance to irinotecan and oxaliplatin predict a poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer

Background: Anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become a relevant solution for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Current anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies face a series of problems, including resistance and non-durable response, and RAS and BRAF mutations serve as exclusion criteria for treatment with anti-EGFR mAbs. Advances in molecular tumor profiling and information on subsequent pathways responsible for disease progression and drug resistance helped develop a new generation of anti-EGFR mAbs. These second-generation mAbs have been developed to overcome existing resistance mechanisms and to limit common side effects. For the moment, existing literature suggests that these novel anti-EGFR mAbs are far from finding their way to clinical practice soon. Objective: In this review, we summarize and evaluate current data regarding ongoing research and completed clinical trials for different second-generation anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies. Conclusion: Anti-EGFR mAbs exhibit efficacy in advanced colorectal cancer, but second-generation mAbs failed to prove their benefit in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Understanding the biological basis of primary and acquired drug resistance could allow scientists to design better clinical trials and develop improved second-generation mAbs.

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PI3K/ Akt/ mTOR Pathway as a Therapeutic Target for Colorectal Cancer: A Review of Preclinical and Clinical Evidence

Current Drug Targets ◽

10.2174/1389450120666190618123846 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (12) ◽

pp. 1217-1226 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Arunaksharan Narayanankutty

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Drug Resistance ◽

Therapeutic Target ◽

Clinical Evidence ◽

Mtor Pathway ◽

Colorectal Cancers ◽

Patent Literature ◽

Mtor Signalling ◽

Natural And Synthetic

Background: Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3Ks) is a member of intracellular lipid kinases and involved in the regulation of cellular proliferation, differentiation and survival. Overexpression of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling has been reported in various forms of cancers, especially in colorectal cancers (CRC). Due to their significant roles in the initiation and progression events of colorectal cancer, they are recognized as a striking therapeutic target. Objective: The present review is aimed to provide a detailed outline on the role of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in the initiation and progression events of colorectal cancers as well as its function in drug resistance. Further, the role of PI3K/Akt/mTOR inhibitors alone and in combination with other chemotherapeutic drugs, in alleviating colorectal cancer is also discussed. The review contains preclinical and clinical evidence as well as patent literature of the pathway inhibitors which are natural and synthetic in origin. Methods: The data were obtained from PubMed/Medline databases, Scopus and Google patent literature. Results: PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling is an important event in colorectal carcinogenesis. In addition, it plays significant roles in acquiring drug resistance as well as metastatic initiation events of CRCs. Several small molecules of natural and synthetic origin have been found to be potent inhibitors of CRCs by effectively downregulating the pathway. Data from various clinical studies also support these pathway inhibitors and several among them are patented. Conclusion: Inhibitors of the PI3K/mTOR pathway have been successful for the treatment of primary and metastatic colorectal cancers, rendering the pathway as a promising clinical cancer therapeutic target.

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Early T Stage Is Associated With Poor Prognosis in Patients With Metastatic Liver Colorectal Cancer

Frontiers in Oncology ◽

10.3389/fonc.2020.00716 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Lunpo Wu ◽

Jianfei Fu ◽

Yi Chen ◽

Liangjing Wang ◽

Shu Zheng

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Poor Prognosis ◽

T Stage ◽

Metastatic Liver

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MYH9-dependent polarization of ATG9B promotes colorectal cancer metastasis by accelerating focal adhesion assembly

Cell Death and Differentiation ◽

10.1038/s41418-021-00813-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yan Zhong ◽

Ting Long ◽

Chuan-Sha Gu ◽

Jing-Yi Tang ◽

Ling-Fang Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Focal Adhesion ◽

Poor Prognosis ◽

Cancer Metastasis ◽

Integrin Β1 ◽

Independent Manner ◽

Interacting Protein ◽

Tumour Metastasis ◽

Elevated Expression ◽

Dependent Polarization

AbstractTumour metastasis is a major reason accounting for the poor prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC), and the discovery of targets in the primary tumours that can predict the risk of CRC metastasis is now urgently needed. In this study, we identified autophagy-related protein 9B (ATG9B) as a key potential target gene for CRC metastasis. High expression of ATG9B in tumour significantly increased the risk of metastasis and poor prognosis of CRC. Mechanistically, we further find that ATG9B promoted CRC invasion mainly through autophagy-independent manner. MYH9 is the pivotal interacting protein for ATG9B functioning, which directly binds to cytoplasmic peptide segments aa368–411 of ATG9B by its head domain. Furthermore, the combination of ATG9B and MYH9 enhance the stability of each other by decreasing their binding to E3 ubiquitin ligase STUB1, therefore preventing them from ubiquitin-mediated degradation, which further amplified the effect of ATG9B and MYH9 in CRC cells. During CRC cell invasion, ATG9B is transported to the cell edge with the assistance of MYH9 and accelerates focal adhesion (FA) assembly through mediating the interaction of endocytosed integrin β1 and Talin-1, which facilitated to integrin β1 activation. Clinically, upregulated expression of ATG9B in human CRC tissue is always accompanied with highly elevated expression of MYH9 and associated with advanced CRC stage and poor prognosis. Taken together, this study highlighted the important role of ATG9B in CRC metastasis by promoting focal adhesion assembly, and ATG9B together with MYH9 can provide a pair of potential therapeutic targets for preventing CRC progression.

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Baseline and Kinetic Circulating Tumor Cell Counts Are Prognostic Factors in a Prospective Study of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Diagnostics ◽

10.3390/diagnostics11030502 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 502

Author(s):

Virgílio Souza e Silva ◽

Emne Ali Abdallah ◽

Angelo Borsarelli Carvalho de Brito ◽

Alexcia Camila Braun ◽

Milena Shizue Tariki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Drug Resistance ◽

Prospective Study ◽

Metastatic Colorectal Cancer ◽

Clinical Outcomes ◽

Predictive Biomarkers ◽

Multi Drug Resistance ◽

Cell Counts ◽

Potential Clinical Benefit ◽

A Prospective Study

The discovery of predictive biomarkers in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is essential to improve clinical outcomes. Recent data suggest a potential role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as prognostic indicators. We conducted a follow-on analysis from a prospective study of consecutive patients with mCRC. CTC analysis was conducted at two timepoints: baseline (CTC1; before starting chemotherapy), and two months after starting treatment (CTC2). CTC isolation/quantification were completed by ISET® (Rarecells, France). CTC expressions of drug resistance-associated proteins were evaluated. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method. Seventy-five patients were enrolled from May 2012 to May 2014. A CTC1 cut-off of >1.5 CTCs/mL was associated with an inferior median OS compared to lower values. A difference of CTC2−CTC1 > 5.5 CTCs/mL was associated with a reduced median PFS. By multivariate analysis, CTC1 > 1.5 CTCs/mL was an independent prognostic factor for worse OS. Multi-drug resistance protein-1 (MRP-1) expression was associated with poor median OS. CTC baseline counts, kinetics, and MRP-1 expression were predictive of clinical outcomes. Larger studies are warranted to explore the potential clinical benefit of treating mCRC patients with targeted therapeutic regimens guided by CTC findings.

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Transcriptome of Tumor-Infiltrating T Cells in Colorectal Cancer Patients Uncovered a Unique Gene Signature in CD4+ T Cells Associated with Poor Disease-Specific Survival

Vaccines ◽

10.3390/vaccines9040334 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 334

Author(s):

Salman M. Toor ◽

Varun Sasidharan Nair ◽

Reem Saleh ◽

Rowaida Z. Taha ◽

Khaled Murshed ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

T Cells ◽

T Cell Activation ◽

Cd4 T Cells ◽

Poor Prognosis ◽

Gene Signature ◽

The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽

Disease Specific Survival ◽

Unique Gene ◽

Disease Specific

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is influenced by infiltration of immune cell populations in the tumor microenvironment. While elevated levels of cytotoxic T cells are associated with improved prognosis, limited studies have reported associations between CD4+ T cells and disease outcomes. We recently performed transcriptomic profiling and comparative analyses of sorted CD4+ and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from bulk tumors of CRC patients with varying disease stages. In this study, we compared the transcriptomes of CD4+ with CD8+ TILs. Functional annotation pathway analyses revealed the downregulation of inflammatory response-related genes, while T cell activation and angiogenesis-related genes were upregulated in CD4+ TILs. The top 200 deregulated genes in CD4+ TILs were aligned with the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) CRC dataset to identify a unique gene signature associated with poor prognosis. Moreover, 69 upregulated and 20 downregulated genes showed similar trends of up/downregulation in the TCGA dataset and were used to calculate “poor prognosis score” (ppScore), which was significantly associated with disease-specific survival. High ppScore patients showed lower expression of Treg-, Th1-, and Th17-related genes, and higher expression of Th2-related genes. Our data highlight the significance of T cells within the TME and identify a unique candidate prognostic gene signature for CD4+ TILs in CRC patients.

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