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Colorectal cancer classification based on gene expression is not associated with FOLFIRI response

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 1230–1231 (2014)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

Sadanandam et al.1 recently published a study based on the use of microarray data to classify colorectal cancer (CRC) samples. The report claimed that the classification system has clinical implications in associating cellular phenotype with responses to therapy1. The authors defined five CRC subtypes: (i) inflammatory, (ii) goblet-like, (iii) enterocyte, (iv) transit-amplifying and (v) stem-like. On the basis of drug sensitivity data from 21 CRC patients2, they also reported that tumors with the so-called stem-like subtype show differential sensitivity to treatment with FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan)1. This is a key result in their publication, as it implies a direct relation between the tumor subtype and the choice of CRC therapy (i.e., FOLFIRI response). However, our analyses using the same drug sensitivity data and results from additional patients showed that the CRC classification reported by Sadanandam et al.1 is not predictive of FOLFIRI response.

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Gene Expression Omnibus

References

  1. Sadanandam, A. et al. Nat. Med. 19, 619–625 (2013).

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  2. Del Rio, M. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 25, 773–780 (2007).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III COMBIOMED (RD07/0067/0014), the Spanish MINECO (BIO2012-40205) and the US National Cancer Institute (R01-CA116554 and R01-CA129963). We thank D. Juan for advice on methodology and helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

    Raquel Martinez-Garcia, Pedro P Lopez-Casas & Manuel Hidalgo

  2. Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

    Daniel Rico & Alfonso Valencia

Authors
  1. Raquel Martinez-Garcia
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  2. Pedro P Lopez-Casas
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  3. Daniel Rico
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  4. Alfonso Valencia
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  5. Manuel Hidalgo
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Contributions

R.M.-G., D.R., A.V. and M.H. were responsible for conception and design. P.P.L.-C. coordinated the experimental work. All authors were responsible for interpretation of data. R.M.-G. and D.R. drafted the initial manuscript. All authors critically revised and approved the manuscript for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Hidalgo.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Martinez-Garcia, R., Lopez-Casas, P., Rico, D. et al. Colorectal cancer classification based on gene expression is not associated with FOLFIRI response. Nat Med 20, 1230–1231 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3701

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