Association of Mutant KRAS Alleles With Morphology and Clinical Outcomes in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

CONTEXT.—: Mutant KRAS is the main oncogenic driver in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs). However, the clinical and phenotypic implications of harboring different mutant KRAS alleles remain poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE.—: To characterize the potential morphologic and clinical outcome differences in PDACs harboring distinct mutant KRAS alleles.

DESIGN.—: Cohort 1 consisted of 127 primary conventional PDACs with no neoadjuvant therapy, excluding colloid/mucinous, adenosquamous, undifferentiated, and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm-associated carcinomas, for which an in-house 42-gene mutational panel had been performed. A morphologic classification system was devised wherein each tumor was assigned as conventional, papillary/large duct (P+LD, defined as neoplastic glands with papillary structure and/or with length ≥0.5 mm), or poorly differentiated (when the aforementioned component was 60% or more of the tumor). Cohort 2 was a cohort of 88 PDACs in The Cancer Genome Atlas, which were similarly analyzed.

RESULTS.—: In both cohorts, there was significant enrichment of P+LD morphology in PDACs with KRAS G12V and G12R compared with G12D. In the entire combined cohort, Kaplan-Meier analyses showed longer overall survival (OS) with KRAS G12R as compared with G12D (median OS of 1255 versus 682 days, P = .03) and in patients whose PDACs displayed P+LD morphology as compared with conventional morphology (median OS of 1175 versus 684 days, P = .04). In the adjuvant-only subset, KRAS G12R had the longest OS compared with G12D, G12V, and other alleles (median OS unreached/undefined versus 1009, 1129, and 1222 days, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS.—: PDACs with different mutant KRAS alleles are associated with distinct morphologies and clinical outcomes, with KRAS G12R allele associated with P+LD morphology and longer OS when compared with G12D using Kaplan-Meier studies.