In this study, we examined the prognostic significance of tumor MMR deficiency and the presence of a specific mutation in BRAF (V600E) in a group of patients (n = 533) who participated in a randomized prospective clinical trial through the North Central Cancer Treatment Group.
All patients underwent tumor microsatellite instability analysis and immunostaining for MLH1 and MSH2, and those with MMR deficiency (n = 91) underwent tumor BRAF V600E mutation analysis and MLH1/MSH2 germline testing.
These results seem to indicate that Cdx2 may play a role in the serrated pathway to colorectal cancer as underlined by strong relationships with BRAF(V600E), CIMP-high and MMR-deficiency.
This study demonstrates that the IHC approach for both MMR deficiency and V600E BRAF mutation detections is the most efficient approach for Lynch syndrome screening in the Italian population.