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A rat virus visits the clinic: translating basic discoveries into clinical medicine in the 21st century

Mutant forms of the KRAS2 gene are present in the serum of patients who have undergone putatively curative surgery for colorectal cancer and may be used to guide novel therapies in the future by identifying those individuals at greatest risk of recurrence

One of the holy grails of biomedical research is to identify markers of occult disease that might lead to early treatment of that disease before the manifestations are overt—and ipso facto incurable. In this issue of Gut , Ryan and colleagues1 from Dublin report that one more application of basic science discovery might be ready for use in the management of patients with colorectal cancer [see page 101] . These investigators have found that mutant forms of the KRAS2 gene are present in the serum of patients who have undergone putatively curative surgery for colorectal cancer. This information can predict tumour recurrences and, by inference, might be used to guide novel therapies in the future by identifying those individuals at greatest risk of recurrence. We have all waited patiently for the fruits of the molecular biology revolution that began nearly two decades ago, and it may be worthwhile to assess the tempo by which these discoveries make their way from the bench to the clinic.

The RAS gene family encodes for a series of at least 50 guanosine triphosphatases …