IntegraGen announced a collaboration with investigators from the New EPOC study to validate the oncology biomarker hsa-miR-31-3p, a microRNA whose expression has been shown to be a predictor of progression free survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with anti-EGFR therapy. The New EPOC study is a randomized clinical trial of chemotherapy alone compared to chemotherapy in combination with cetuximab, an anti-EGFR antibody, in 272 KRAS wild-type patients with operable metastases from colorectal cancer. Initial results from the New EPOC study were reported at the 2013 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held in Chicago, Illinois (link to abstract).

The present collaboration will explore the expression levels of hsa-miR-31-3p in both primary and metastatic tumors and determine the ability of the biomarker to predict patient outcomes. A previously conducted study (link) has reported that hsa-mir-31-3p expression in primary tumor samples was associated with anti-EGFR response in KRAS wild-type patients with mCRC receiving EGFR inhibitor therapy.