Molecular dissection of colorectal cancer in pre-clinical models identifies biomarkers predicting sensitivity to EGFR inhibitors

Colorectal carcinoma represents a heterogeneous entity, with only a fraction of the tumours responding to available therapies, requiring a better molecular understanding of the disease in precision oncology. To address this challenge, the OncoTrack consortium recruited 106 CRC patients (stages I–IV) and developed a pre-clinical platform generating a compendium of drug sensitivity data totalling >4,000 assays testing 16 clinical drugs on patient-derived in vivo and in vitro models. This large biobank of 106 tumours, 35 organoids and 59 xenografts, with extensive omics data comparing donor tumours and derived models provides a resource for advancing our understanding of CRC. Models recapitulate many of the genetic and transcriptomic features of the donors, but defined less complex molecular sub-groups because of the loss of human stroma. Linking molecular profiles with drug sensitivity patterns identifies novel biomarkers, including a signature outperforming RAS/RAF mutations in predicting sensitivity to the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab.