Can response to epidermal growth factor receptor antibodies in metastatic colorectal cancer be predicted? Advanced bio-informatics tools integrating gene mutation and microarray data may hold the key.

The primary aim of this project is to define biomarkers that will predict primary and acquired resistance to the EGFR targeting monoclonal antibodies in metastatic colorectal cancer. The secondary endpoint is to create a substantial library of metastasic colorectal cancer samples, and via pathway mining, using advanced bioinformatics tools, to identify novel gene pathways and networks and future drugable targets.

Keywords:Gene expression, Colorectal cancer, EGFR

Disciplines:Genetics, Systems biology, Molecular and cell biology