title: The BRAF mutation is associated with the prognosis in colorectal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Two members of the Ras/Raf signaling pathway, KRAS and B-raf, are suspected to be involved in the stepwise progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) tumorigenesis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We compared the KRAS and BRAF mutation status of CRC patients with their clinicopathological characteristics and examined the effect of mutation status on survival rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA was extracted from 164 samples, and the mutation statuses of KRAS and BRAF were assessed using peptide PNA clamp real-time PCR method. The presences of mutation were compared with clinicopathological factors and 5-year survival rate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 164 CRC cases, KRAS mutation as detected in 71 cases (43.3 %), respectively, with no relationship with clinicopathological factors of the patients. On Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, KRAS mutation was not significantly associated with survival (p = 0.971). BRAF mutation was detected in 26 cases (15.9 %) and not associated with clinicopathological factors of the patients. However, the 5-year survival rate of BRAF mutations was significantly decreased (p = 0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of KRAS mutation did not correlate with the various clinicopathological factors of CRC patients or the survival rate. However, the survival rate was reduced in BRAF-mutated CRC patients. Therefore, BRAF mutation could be an important prognostic factor in CRC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University of Korea, 31 Soonchunhyang 6 gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, 330-722, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Sung
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Dongjun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Myoung Won
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Son
authors.forename: Haeil
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Soyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyungjoo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang Byung
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Han Jo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young-Woo
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Moon Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Moo-Jun
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Baek
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf / Q000235:genetics*; D016283:Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras); D018631:ras Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C117307:KRAS protein, human; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; C482119:BRAF protein, human; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf; D016283:Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras); D018631:ras Proteins