The role of KRAS rs61764370 in invasive epithelial ovarian cancer: implications for clinical testing

Pharoah PD, et al. Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Jun 1;17(11):3742-50. Epub 2011 Mar 8

An assay for a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a 3′UTR miRNA binding site of the KRAS gene has recently been commercially marketed as a clinical test to aid epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk assessment in women with family histories of the disease. The justification for use of this assay was based on one published paper which analyzed fewer than 1,000 subjects in total, including only 67 EOC cases carrying BRCA1 mutations or with family histories of EOC. The present report found no association between this SNP and ovarian cancer risk among 8,669 cases of unselected invasive EOC and 10,012 controls, or in 683 cases and 2,044 controls carrying BRCA1 mutations. The results suggest that evaluation of this SNP is not clinically useful for risk prediction in sporadic or familial ovarian cancer.