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Precision medicine, which considers the genetics of the tumor tissues and cells for selection of the most appropriate treatment strategy, has recently been developed for colorectal cancer. The BRAF mutation status in colorectal cancer has been tested, but precision medicine for BRAF-mutated tumors had not been applicable due to no approved BRAF-targeting drugs until recently. In addition, conventional standard chemotherapy for BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer show limited effectiveness, resulting in poor prognosis. Therefore, we need new drugs specific for BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer. In this review, we outline the characteristics, development, and new treatment strategies for BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer. In addition, we introduce the BEACON CRC study, which prospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of combination therapy of encorafenib(BRAF inhibitor), binimetinib(MEK inhibitor), and cetuximab(anti-EGFR antibody)in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer with the BRAF V600E-mutation.

Background Previous studies have shown that the baculovirus-vectored vaccine based on the “baculovirus dual expression system (BDES)” is an effective vaccine delivery platform for malaria. However, a point of weakness remaining for use of this vaccine platform in vivo concerns viral inactivation by serum complement. In an effort to achieve complement resistance, the gene encoding the human decay-accelerating factor (hDAF) was incorporated into the BDES malaria vaccine expressing the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP). Results The newly-developed BDES vaccine, designated BDES-sPfCSP2-Spider, effectively displayed hDAF and PfCSP on the surface of the viral envelope, resulting in complement resistance both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, upon intramuscular inoculation into mice, the BDES-sPfCSP2-Spider vaccine had a higher protective efficacy (60%) than that of the control vaccine BDES-sPfCSP2-Spier (30%) against challenge with transgenic Plasmodium berghei sporozoites expressing PfCSP. Conclusion DAF-shielded BDES-vaccines offer great potential for development as a new malaria vaccine platform against the sporozoite challenge. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-017-2039-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Schematic representation of pFast-Spider. Table S1. Primers used in this study. Supplementary materials and methods.