Precision medicine in colorectal cancer: evolving genomic landscape and emerging consensus.
Colorectal cancer is the third most lethal cancer in men and women in the USA. Although surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment, many patients develop local and widely metastatic disease and become resistant to conventional chemotherapeutics. Recent comprehensive molecular characterization has led to subclassification of colorectal adenocarcinoma based on molecular properties, such as microsatellite instability and high CpG island methylation. These emerging subclassifications are associate with varying frequencies of RAS, BRAF, APC and other genetic events and have the ability to redefine therapeutic regimens. In this review, we examine how molecular diagnostics are currently used while providing insight into emerging implications for molecular analysis for personalized therapy in colorectal cancer.
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, IN 46202, USA.
Kurt W
KW
Fisher
Unit of Anatomical Pathology, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n E-14004 Cordoba, Spain.|Champalimaud Clinical Center, Avda. Brasilia, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal.
Antonio
A
Lopez-Beltran
Pathological Anatomy, Polytechnic University of the Marche Region, School of Medicine, Piazza Roma, 22, Ancona, Italy.
Rodolfo
R
Montironi
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, IN 46202, USA.
Liang
L
Cheng
BRAF; KRAS; NRAS; colorectal cancer; microsatellite instability; molecular diagnostics; personalized medicine