Dr. Eng on Extended RAS Analysis Results From the EPIC Trial in mCRC

Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, FASCO, David H. Johnson Chair in Surgical and Medical Oncology; co-leader of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Research Program; professor of medicine in hematology and oncology; co-director of GI Oncology; vice chair of the SWOG GI Committee; and director of the VICC Young Adult Cancers Initiative at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses results from the extended RAS analysis of the phase 3 EPIC trial (NCT00063141) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

EPIC is an older study that examined the role of irinotecan and cetuximab (Erbitux) vs irinotecan alone, according to Eng. Recent data have shed light on the role of anti-EGFR therapy in patients with RAS wild-type disease. This led to an updated analysis of existing data that considered new molecular abnormalities such as KRAS and other RAS mutations, Eng says.

Of 452 patients with RAS wild-type disease enrolled to the study, 231 received the combination regimen vs 221 who received irinotecan alone. Patients with RAS wild-type CRC experienced significantly improved response rates with the combination regimen, which translated to an overall response rate of 29.4% vs 5.0% with single-agent irinotecan. Additionally, the median progression-free survival was 5.4 months in the investigative arm compared with 2.6 months in the control arm, Eng concludes.