Abstract 5014: Predictive value of wild-type EGFR determined by immunohistochemistry for response to treatment with cetuximab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer
Authors: Khelwatty Said Abdullah , Essapen Sharadah , Bagwan Izhar , Green Margaret , Seddon Alan , Modjtahedi Helmout 
Published: July 2016

The aberrant expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been reported in patients with colorectal cancer, and EGFR is an important therapeutic target in such patients. To date, of the anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), only cetuximab and panitumumab have been approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). While treatment with a combination of antibodies and cytotoxic drugs improves response rate and median time to progression in some colorectal cancer patients, the duration of response is often limited. In addition, no clear association has been found between the expression level of the EGFR protein in the tumours, determined by the FDA-approved EGFR PharmDx kit, or other standard anti-EGFR antibodies, and the response to the EGFR inhibitors. We have previously shown that kits such as the EGFR PharmDx™ kit, used to determine the expression of EGFR, does not discriminate between the wild-type EGFR (wtEGFR) and the type III deletion mutant EGFR (EGFRvIII), and as such could have contributed to the lack of association between the expression of EGFR and response to anti-EGFR antibodies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the predictive value of wtEGFR for response to therapy with cetuximab. The expression levels of wtEGFR, mutated EGFRvIII, and phosphorylated EGFR (pEGFR Tyr1068 & Tyr1173) were determined using immunohistochemistry and specific antibodies in 61 FFPE tumour specimens from patients with mCRC treated with cetuximab. Sections were scored by the percentage of positive tumour cells, location and intensity of staining. Their associations with response and progression free survival were evaluated using Chi-squared and Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test respectively. Overall 11% and 46% of the cases were found to express membranous and cytoplasmic EGFR, using mAb specific for wtEGFR (DAK-H1-WT). On the other hand using anti EGFR.113 clone antibody, which does not discriminate between the wtEGFR and EGFRvIII, 11.5% and 18% of the cases were found to express the cytoplasmic and membranous EGFR respectively. While all cases were negative for the pEGFR, the expression of EGFRvIII was mainly cytoplasmic, occurring in 41% of the cases examined. Of these, only the cytoplasmic expression of wtEGFR was found to be significantly associated with poor response to treatment (P = 0.002) and progression free survival (95% CI, 0-3 months vs 4.5-17 months, P = 0.001). Taken together, our results suggest that cytoplasmic expression of wtEGFR is associated with a significantly shorter progression free survival, and is a predictive marker for poor response to treatment with the anti-EGFR mAb cetuximab. These findings underlie the need for further investigations, in a larger population of patients, to validate the predictive value of wtEGFR for response to therapy with anti-EGFR antibodies in patients with mCRC.

Citation Format: Said Abdullah Khelwatty, Sharadah Essapen, Izhar Bagwan, Margaret Green, Alan Seddon, Helmout Modjtahedi. Predictive value of wild-type EGFR determined by immunohistochemistry for response to treatment with cetuximab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 5014.