Combining Genetic and Nongenetic Prognostic Factors for Colon Cancer Classification

This study attempted to classify colon cancer using both genetic and nongenetic prognostic factors. RFS rate difference was adopted as a method for selecting and combining these factors. Four leaf classes, II/T3, II/T4, III/KRAS-wt, and III/KRAS-mut were obtained from the discovery cohort. Significant RFS rate differences were also observed among leaf classes in the validation cohort, which is superior to the classifications of TNM staging and the classifications based on biomarkers and gene expressions.