High prevalence of unusual KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF mutations in POLE-hypermutated colorectal cancers.

ABSTRACT: Exonucleasic domain POLE (edPOLE) mutations, which are responsible for a hypermutated tumor phenotype, occur in 1-2% of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases. These alterations represent an emerging biomarker for response to immune checkpoint blockade. This study aimed to assess the molecular characteristics of edPOLE-mutated tumors to facilitate patient screening. Based on opensource data analysis, we compared the prevalence of edPOLE mutations in a control group of unselected CRC patients (n = 222) vs a group enriched for unusual BRAF/RAS mutations (n = 198). Tumor mutational burden (TMB) and immune infiltrate of tumors harboring edPOLE mutations were then analyzed. In total, 420 CRC patients were analyzed: 11 edPOLE-mutated tumors were identified, most frequently in microsatellite (MMR)-profici

SUBMITTER: Favre L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9441000 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature