title: Implications of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity for heterogeneity in colorectal cancer.
abstract: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a genetically heterogeneous disease that develops and progresses through several distinct pathways characterized by genomic instability. In recent years, it has emerged that inherent plasticity in some populations of CRC cells can contribute to heterogeneity in differentiation state, metastatic potential, therapeutic response, and disease relapse. Such plasticity is thought to arise through interactions between aberrant signaling events, including persistent activation of the APC/β-catenin and KRAS/BRAF/ERK pathways, and the tumor microenvironment. Here, we highlight key concepts and evidence relating to the role of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity as a driver of CRC progression and stratification of the disease into distinct molecular and clinicopathological subsets.
authors.affiliation: Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Lloyd
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Austin Hospital , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mariadason
authors.affiliation: Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Ross D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hannan
authors.affiliation: Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Amardeep S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Dhillon
keywords: CRC; cancer stem cell; epithelial–mesenchymal transition; serrated; subtypes; tumor progression