{"entity":{"id":"co-17","kind":"trial","name":"NCIC CO.17","aka":["CO.17"],"tldr":"The trial that proved an EGFR antibody on its own lengthens life in bowel cancer, and whose stored tumour blocks then proved that only KRAS-normal tumours benefit.","summary":"CO.17 randomised 572 patients with pretreated EGFR-positive metastatic colorectal cancer to cetuximab with best supportive care or best supportive care alone. Cetuximab improved overall survival (hazard ratio for death 0.77, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.92, p=0.005) and progression-free survival (hazard ratio 0.68, 0.57 to 0.80) while preserving quality-of-life measures. Its lasting importance is the retrospective biomarker analysis of the trial's tumour blocks, published a year later, which found the survival benefit confined to KRAS wild-type tumours and absent, with a trend to harm, in KRAS-mutant ones: the first negative predictive biomarker in solid-tumour oncology and the reason RAS testing became mandatory before any EGFR antibody.","status":"positive","asOf":"2026-09-24","links":[{"label":"ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00079066","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00079066"},{"label":"CO.17: cetuximab for the treatment of colorectal cancer (New England Journal of Medicine 2007)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa071834"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal"],"sections":[],"technologies":["monoclonal-antibody"],"targets":["egfr","kras"],"drugs":["cetuximab"],"companies":["cctg"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["crystal-fire3","prime","opus"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"nct":"NCT00079066","phase":"3","setting":"Pretreated EGFR-positive metastatic colorectal cancer with no remaining standard option: cetuximab with best supportive care against best supportive care alone","sponsor":"NCIC Clinical Trials Group","result":"Overall survival hazard ratio 0.77 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.92, p=0.005) against best supportive care alone; benefit confined to KRAS wild-type tumours.","yearReported":2007,"enrolled":572,"enrolledBasis":"registry","outcomes":[{"endpoint":"Overall survival","primary":true,"unit":"hazard ratio","arms":[{"name":"Cetuximab plus best supportive care","value":0.77},{"name":"Best supportive care","value":1}],"hr":0.77,"ci":[0.64,0.92],"p":"0.005","source":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa071834"}],"replication":"PRIME extended the same logic prospectively to all of KRAS and NRAS."},"route":"/trials/co-17/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"}],"technology":[{"id":"monoclonal-antibody","kind":"technology","name":"Monoclonal antibodies","route":"/technologies/monoclonal-antibody/"}],"target":[{"id":"egfr","kind":"target","name":"EGFR","route":"/targets/egfr/"},{"id":"kras","kind":"target","name":"KRAS","route":"/targets/kras/"}],"drug":[{"id":"cetuximab","kind":"drug","name":"Cetuximab","route":"/drugs/cetuximab/"}],"company":[{"id":"cctg","kind":"company","name":"Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG)","route":"/companies/cctg/"}],"trial":[{"id":"crystal-fire3","kind":"trial","name":"CRYSTAL & FIRE-3","route":"/trials/crystal-fire3/"},{"id":"opus","kind":"trial","name":"OPUS","route":"/trials/opus/"},{"id":"prime","kind":"trial","name":"PRIME","route":"/trials/prime/"}]}}