Novel drug resistance mechanisms and drug targets in BRAF-mutated peritoneal metastasis from colorectal cancer

Patients with peritoneal metastasis from colorectal cancer (PM-CRC) have inferior prognosis and respond particularly poorly to chemotherapy. This study aims to identify the molecular explanation for the observed clinical behavior and suggest novel treatment strategies in PM-CRC. Tumor samples (230) from a Norwegian national cohort undergoing surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) with mitomycin C (MMC) for PM-CRC were subjected to targeted DNA sequencing, and associations with clinical data were analyzed. mRNA sequencing was conducted on a subset of 30 samples to compare gene expression in tumors harboring BRAF or KRAS mutations and wild-type tumors. BRAF mutations were detected in 27