Dr. Manji on Lack of Actionable Targets in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Gulam A. Manji, MD, PhD, director, Medical Oncology and Translational Research for The Pancreas Center, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, discusses the importance of discovering other actionable targets for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

The search continues for additional actionable targets in patients with CRC, says Manji. Identifying these mutations could help increase the efficacy of available treatment and improve patient survival.

Other than those with KRAS mutations, there has been little success in finding another target present in a large proportion of patients, he explains. For example, in other cancer types, there are rare diseases where a large proportion of patients who have the NTRK mutation can benefit from treatment. Unfortunately, that is not the case for gastrointestinal malignancies, says Manji.

However, a considerable percentage of mutation-negative gastrointestinal stromal tumors harbor a NTRK translocation, so some efficacy may be seen there, concludes Manji.