Histological phenotypic subtypes predict recurrence risk and response to adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage III colorectal cancer.
Roseweir AK., Park JH., Hoorn ST., Powell AG., Aherne S., Roxburgh CS., McMillan DC., Horgan PG., Ryan E., Sheahan K., Vermeulen L., Paul J., Harkin A., Graham J., Sansom O., Church DN., Tomlinson I., Saunders M., Iveson TJ., Edwards J.
Histological 'phenotypic subtypes' that classify patients into four groups (immune, canonical, latent and stromal) have previously been demonstrated to stratify survival in a stage I-III colorectal cancer (CRC) pilot cohort. However, clinical utility has not yet been validated. Therefore, this study assessed prognostic value of these subtypes in additional patient cohorts along with associations with risk of recurrence and response to chemotherapy. Two independent stage I-III CRC patient cohorts (internal and external cohort) were utilised to investigate phenotypic subtypes. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS) and the secondary endpoint was recurrence risk (RR). Stage II-III patients, from the SCOT adjuvant chemotherapy trial, were utilised to further validate prognostic value and for exploratory analysis assessing associations with adjuvant chemotherapy. In an 893-patient internal cohort, phenotypic subtype independently associated with DFS (p = 0.025) and this was attenuated in stage III patients (p = 0.020). Phenotypic subtype also independently associated with RR (p