Dr. Kanwal Raghav on the Biology of HER2 Gene Amplification in mCRC

Kanwal Raghav, MBBS, MD, assistant professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses questions regarding HER2 gene amplification in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

There needs to be a better understanding of the biology of HER2 amplified tumors, says Raghav.

Amplification is found only in patients who are RAS and RAF wild type, so these are two genes that are routinely tested in colon cancer. Within that group, HER2 amplification occurs only about 8% of the time.

Many questions remain regarding the amplification, including if these patients have right-sided or left-sided, are women or men, or if a particular metastatic site is associated with these tumors, says Raghav.