The authors conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis to examine whether patients who had metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with the v‐Ki‐ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) p.G13D mutation (an amino acid substitution at position 13 in KRAS from a glycine to an aspartic acid) and received cetuximab treatment had better clinical outcomes than patients who had mCRC tumors with KRAS codon 12 mutations.

Relevant studies were identified by a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Chinese Biomedical Database, and Wan Fang Digital Journals from inception to October 2011. The primary clinical outcomes included the objective response rate (ORR), progression‐free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). The pooled relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio (HR) was estimated by using fixed‐effects or random‐effects models according to heterogeneity between studies.

Ten studies were considered eligible that included 1487 patients with mCRC. Patients who had tumors with the KRAS p.G13D mutation had a significantly higher ORR (10 studies; RR, 1.642; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.131‐2.384), longer PFS (1 study; HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.36‐0.81), and longer OS (1 study; HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.33‐0.80) than patients who had tumors with KRAS codon 12 mutations. Compared with patients who had KRAS wild‐type tumors, patients with the p.G13D mutation had a significantly lower ORR (9 studies; RR, 0.540; 95% CI, 0.381‐0.765) and nonsignificantly shorter PFS (1 study; HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.68‐1.45) and OS (1 study; HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.66‐1.54).

Patients who had mCRC with the KRAS p.G13D mutation appeared to benefit more from cetuximab than patients who had tumors with KRAS codon 12 mutations. However, because of the limited sample sizes in the current meta‐analysis, these results should be interpreted with caution. Cancer 2013. © 2012 American Cancer Society.