{"entity":{"id":"ryan-corcoran","kind":"person","name":"Ryan B. Corcoran","aka":[],"tldr":"Worked out why BRAF inhibitors fail in colorectal cancer and how to combine drugs to overcome it.","summary":"Ryan B. Corcoran is Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center and Scientific Director of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He is a physician-scientist known for working out why BRAF inhibitors fail in colorectal cancer, defining the EGFR-mediated feedback that led to the BRAF plus EGFR combinations of encorafenib and cetuximab now approved. His selected paper shows that EGFR-mediated reactivation of MAPK signalling contributes to the insensitivity of BRAF-mutant colorectal cancers to RAF inhibition with vemurafenib. He now uses ctDNA liquid biopsy to track clonal resistance to BRAF and KRAS-directed therapy.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"MGH profile","url":"https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/19556/ryan-corcoran"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Corcoran%20RB%5BAuthor%5D"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal"],"sections":[],"technologies":["liquid-biopsy"],"targets":["braf","kras","egfr"],"drugs":["encorafenib","cetuximab"],"companies":[],"institutions":["mgh"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Director, Gastrointestinal Cancer Center; Scientific Director, Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy","institutionId":"mgh","specialisms":["Colorectal cancer","BRAF and KRAS resistance","Liquid biopsy","Targeted therapy combinations"],"profiles":[{"label":"MGH profile","url":"https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/19556/ryan-corcoran"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Corcoran%20RB%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[{"title":"EGFR-mediated re-activation of MAPK signaling contributes to insensitivity of BRAF mutant colorectal cancers to RAF inhibition with vemurafenib","journal":"Cancer Discovery","year":2012,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-11-0341","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-11-0341"}]},"route":"/people/ryan-corcoran/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"}],"technology":[{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"}],"target":[{"id":"braf","kind":"target","name":"BRAF","route":"/targets/braf/"},{"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/"},{"id":"encorafenib","kind":"drug","name":"Encorafenib","route":"/drugs/encorafenib/"}],"institution":[{"id":"mgh","kind":"institution","name":"Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/mgh/"}]}}