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Because the prognosis for stage II colon cancer is favorable (disease recurs in <20% of patients), adjuvant therapy is usually reserved for patients whose tumors have high-risk anatomic or pathologic features. The presence of microsatellite instability (MSI), arising from mutation in genes coding for DNA mismatch repair genes, is prognostic of high survival rates after surgery alone. However, other biomarkers to guide the treatment of stage II patients are lacking.
Recently, a 12-gene recurrence score (RS) — derived from the quantitative analysis of gene expression through reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplification of tumor-derived messenger RNA — was shown to be independently prognostic for recurrence of stage II colon ca…