Dr. Grothey on the Results of the ANCHOR-CRC Trial in BRAF V600E-Mutant mCRC

Axel Grothey, MD, medical oncologist and director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research at West Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses the results of the phase 2 ANCHOR-CRC trial in patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

The ANCHOR-CRC trial looked at the combination of encorafenib (Braftovi), binimetinib (Mektovi), and cetuximab (Erbitux) as a first-line option for patients with previously untreated BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC. The study was similar to the pivotal phase 3 BEACON CRC trial, which evaluated the same combination in patients with BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC who had progressed on 1 or 2 prior regimens.

During the 2020 ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, initial findings from the ANCHOR-CRC trial were presented virtually. Among 40 evaluable patients, the investigator-assessed confirmed objective response rate was 50%, with 85% of patients obtaining tumor shrinkage. However, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.9 months.

These results signal a need to evaluate mechanisms of acquired resistance as the short PFS interval is likely due to resistance that arose despite inhibiting BRAF and the feedback loop within the EGFR antibody, concludes Grothey.