Innovative Technologies in the Study and Understanding of Colorectal Tumorigenesis: Challenges and Opportunities
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2025 | Viewed by 82
Special Issue Editor
Interests: colorectal cancer; apoptosis; inflammation; ovarian cancer; hormonal disorders
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a significant global health challenge, ranking among the leading causes of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide.
Nowadays, researchers are working to advance our understanding of how to prevent, detect, and treat colorectal cancer. For these reasons, it is crucial to find out what factors influence screening behaviors, how to address disparities, and the rising rates of colorectal cancer in younger people.
Screening can prevent colorectal cancer through the detection of precancerous growths, or polyps, which can be removed before they become cancerous. It can also allow colorectal cancers to be detected early, before they cause symptoms and when treatment may be more effective.
Colorectal cancer screening tests include colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, stool-based tests to detect hidden blood, and virtual colonoscopy. Although not currently recommended for screening, there are new techniques under development.
These techniques include technologies that improve the genetic analysis of stool samples, which may reveal the presence of tumor DNA, and looking at changes in the gut microbiome and trying to identify specific bacteria that could potentially help identify patients at risk for colorectal cancer.
Moreover, the detection of ctDNA via liquid biopsy is emerging as a promising strategy to guide treatment decisions. The term “liquid biopsy” can also refer to analyzing other circulating components such as tumor cells, protein biomarkers, and cell-free RNA, and other substances released from tumors into bodily fluids, such as blood and urine. Scientists are testing this method to detect colorectal cancer early, measure treatment responses, identify treatment resistance, and monitor for disease recurrence. The intricate interplay of genetic and epigenetic alterations within colorectal tumors underscores the importance of a personalized approach to treatment. As precision medicine continues to evolve, the ability to tailor therapeutic strategies on the basis of the unique molecular profile of each patient's tumor represents a paradigm shift in the management of metastatic CRC. In this regard, the most important treatment strategies for subtypes of CRC are targeted therapies in earlier treatment lines, targeted therapy retreatment, and the use of immunotherapy combinations.
The use of innovative research strategies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics has expanded the number of candidate biomarkers and led to better comprehension of the progression of colorectal cancer as well as the identification of molecular signatures. The future challenge for researchers is to validate possible biomarkers in a large cohort of patients. In this scenario, translational proteomics remains a powerful and promising tool for the discovery of biomarkers that can lead to important changes in the management of patients with colorectal cancer. It is probable that the key to personalized medicine in colorectal cancer relies on studies that can integrate genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data from a multiomics point of view.
Dr. Paola Sena
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- colorectal cancer
- genetic analysis
- gut microbiome
- tumor
- circulating components
- medicine
- immunotherapy
- proteomics
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