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FAQ

What does “wild-type” mean on my test report?

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”.

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Glossary

Tumor testing

A test done on a tumor sample to assess biological makeup, such as mutations or biomarkers.

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Glossary

Sidedness

Colorectal cancer that arises from the left and right sides of the large intestine have differences in their molecular makeup — which makes them more or less responsive to certain drug combinations.

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Glossary

Accrual

The total number of people who have completed or in the process of completing a specific trial. This number includes patients who withdraw.

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Glossary

iRECIST

iRECIST (immune Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) is a set of guidelines designed to evaluate tumor response in cancer immunotherapy trials.

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Glossary

RECIST 1.1

RECIST 1.1 (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) is the standard, evidence-based guideline used in oncology clinical trials to objectively assess how tumors respond to treatment. It classifies patient responses into four categories—Complete Response (CR), Partial Response (PR), Stable Disease (SD), and Progressive Disease (PD)—based on changes in tumor size.

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Glossary

Adverse event (AE)

A bad reaction to a treatment. Also called adverse effect and adverse reaction.

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Glossary

Hazard ratio (HR)

Hazard ratio. In clincial trials, it’s a measure of how often a particular event happens in one group compared to how often it happens in another group, over time. A hazard ratio of one means that there is no difference in survival between the two groups. A hazard ratio of greater than one or less than one means that survival was better in one of the groups.

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Glossary

Intention to treat (ITT)

The process of analyzing the data from all participants in a trial, based on the group or arm they were initially assigned to. This is done regardless of whether patients dropped out, did not adhere to the full treatment, or were switched to another treatment arm. This is in contrast to a “per-protocol” analysis, where those in the groups listed above would be excluded from the analysis.

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Glossary

Overall survival (OS)

The length of time that patients are alive after starting the particular trial treatment. In study results, this value is reported as the median amount of time participants experienced OS