Metastatic colorectal cancer KRAS genotyping in routine practice: results and pitfalls.

KRAS genotyping is mandatory before anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and in Europe. Thus, large-scale KRAS mutation screening is needed for efficient patient management and in the future metastatic colorectal cancer genotyping might also include the detection of the BRAF V600E mutation, which is a very strong negative prognostic factor in colorectal cancer. We report our experience of routine KRAS/BRAF mutation screening practice performed on 1130 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 992 colorectal cancer patients.

Oligodendroglioma arising in an ovarian mature cystic teratoma.

We describe a case of oligodendroglioma arising in an ovarian mature cystic teratoma associated with a loss of heterozygosity on the long arm of chromosomes 19 and 10. To our knowledge it is the second case reported in the literature at this site and the first one described in association with a characterized genetic alteration. The patient was 29 years old and presented with a history of 4 months of pelvic pain.