Identification of plasma biomarkers for dynamic monitoring of chemotherapy efficacy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients

The first-line chemotherapy with FOLFOX is the most common treatment regimen for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the reported first-line chemotherapy response rate is around 50%, as well as chemo resistant tumours may experience adverse effects following second-line chemotherapy. Clinically, the effect of therapy is monitored using computed tomography (CT), and tumour markers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Both methods still are reported with poor sensitivity for monitoring the therapy response. This situation urges the need for a minimally invasive biomarkers that can provide timely indication of the likely response or resistance to chemotherapy.

The aim of this retrospective study is to identify the panel of cell free non-coding RNAs in plasma of metastatic CRC patients with distinct expression pattern as biomarker for dynamic monitoring of chemotherapy resistance in advanced and recurrent CRC patients and validate potential candidates in retrospective cohort.

The results of this study will be used as knowledge base to develop prospective research project for clinical validation of potential non-coding RNA panel for dynamic monitoring of therapy in metastatic CRC.