The Impact of BRAF Mutation Status on Survival Outcomes and Treatment Patterns among Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients in Alberta, Canada.

Simple Summary: Colorectal cancer can present in diverse ways due to genetic and molecular variations. This study focused on metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) and its correlation with a specific genetic mutation known as v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF). Among the 488 mCRC patients studied, 42 (11.4%) were found to have the BRAF mutation. The initial treatment for most patients involved capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) or leucovorin calcium (folinic acid), fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX). The median overall survival for all mCRC patients was approximately 20.01 months. However, those with the BRAF mutation experienced significantly poorer outcomes, with a median survival of only 8.21 months compared to 20.03 months for those without the mutation. This study underscores the significance of early BRAF testing at the time of colorectal cancer diagnosis. Such testing can help determine a patient's prognosis and enable the development of personalized treatment strategies, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for individuals with advanced colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer presents via multiple different clinical phenotypes that can arise from a variety of different genetic and molecular alterations. The aim of this study was to describe survival outcomes and treatment patterns of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients by v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) mutation status. The Alberta Cancer Registry was used to identify all patients >18 years old who had been diagnosed with mCRC in Alberta between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019 and had received at least one cycle of systemic therapy. Treatment patterns were compared between wild-type and mutant BRAF mCRC patients. Cox regression models and Kaplan–Meier curves were created to assess survival differences by both treatment pattern and BRAF status. A total of 488 patients were identified with mCRC, of which 42 (11.4%) were confirmed to have a BRAF mutation. The most common first-line treatment regimen was either capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) or leucovorin calcium (folinic acid), fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX). The median overall survival for mCRC patients was 20.01 months. Mutant BRAF patients had a median survival of 8.21 months compared to 20.03 months among those with wild-type BRAF. BRAF mutations among mCRC patients are associated with a considerably poor prognosis, reinforcing the need for clinical BRAF testing among newly diagnosed patients to better understand their prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]