What does “wild-type” mean on my test report?
You may wonder what it means when you see “wild-type” on your test report. This is a term used in cancer genetics that simply means no mutation was found in the gene that was tested. In other words, that gene appears to have its usual, expected DNA sequence.
For example, if your report says “KRAS wild-type,” it means no KRAS mutation was found. Similarly “BRAF wild-type” means no BRAF mutation was found. This matters because some colorectal cancer treatments work differently depending on whether tumor genes have a mutation or are wild-type. Your healthcare team will use this information to help choose the treatments that are most likely to work the best for your specific cancer.
So where did the term “wild-type” come from? The name comes from early genetics research — think early 1900s — where the most common version of a gene found in nature was called a wild type. Being found “in the wild” became “wild-type”.