Understanding and overcoming resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor therapy

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in Australia. Current standard treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Cetuximab is often used as part of the clinical management of unselected patients until a subset of patients were found to harbor KRAS mutations that conferred intrinsic resistance to Cetuximab. In addition, some patients are resistant to Cetuximab despite having wild-type KRAS. Using RNA-sequencing data and differential expression analysis, we discovered five potential biomarkers for predicting resistance to Cetuximab in CRC with wild-type KRAS. After generating 3 CRC models of acquired resistance to Cetuximab, we also employed pro..