Merck Serono: ASCO-GI: Overall Survival With Erbitux Is Significantly Improved in Patients With KRAS Wild-Type Tumors in CRYSTAL

ORLANDO, Fla. & DARMSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that Erbitux® (cetuximab) provided an improvement in overall survival (OS) when added to the standard 1st-line FOLFIRI chemotherapy regimen for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with KRAS wild-type tumors in the CRYSTAL study.1 In addition, the final results from this study included an analysis of the predictive value of BRAF status on Erbitux efficacy – one of the first to be based on a large subgroup (n=59) of a prospective, randomized study in the 1st-line setting. The analysis indicates that patients with KRAS wild-type tumors bearing a BRAF mutation also benefit from Erbitux treatment;1 therefore, KRAS remains the only validated, clinically predictive marker of responsiveness to this drug.2 These study results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2010 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO-GI) in Orlando.