Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a significant global public health concern and its characteristics in Eastern Europe are underexplored. In this retrospective study, data of 225 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) from the Colțea Clinical Hospital's Oncology Department in Bucharest were analyzed between 2015 and 2023. They were divided into two groups based on the presence of KRAS mutation. The primary objective of the study was to investigate whether the presence of KRAS mutations influenced the prognosis of mCRC and to identify any demographic, clinical, or paraclinical factors associated with KRAS mutations in stage IV CRC. The overall survival for the entire study population was 29 months. There was a trend towards increased survival in the KRAS wild-type group (31 months) compared to the KRAS-mutant group (26 months), but this difference did not reach statistical significance. We found that lower levels of education, advanced T stage, advanced N stage, and M1 stage at diagnosis negatively impacted prognosis. Real-world data are crucial in shaping public policy strategies to better support patients with metastatic CRC. Understanding the correlations between the demographic, clinical, and paraclinical variables and the outcomes in mCRC patients with KRAS-mutant and KRAS wild-type colorectal cancer is essential for improving patient care and treatment strategies in Romania and beyond.
Keywords: KRAS mutation; metastatic colorectal cancer; real-world data from Romania.