TITLE:
Molecular biology of colorectal cancer: Review of the literature
AUTHORS:
Elrasheid A. H. Kheirelseid, Nicola Miller, Michael J. Kerin
KEYWORDS:
Genetics of Colorectal Cancer; Molecular Biology of Colorectal Cancer; Colorectal Cancer
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Molecular Biology,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
30,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Colorectal cancer (CRC) results from the progressive accumulation of genetic and epigenetic
alterations that lead to the transformation of normal colonic epithelium to
colon adenocarcinoma. From the analysis of the molecular genesis of colon
cancer, four central tenets concerning the pathogenesis of cancer have been
established. The first is that the genetic and epigenetic alterations that
underlie colon cancer formation promote the cancer formation process because
they provide a clonal growth advantage to the cells that acquire them. The
second tenet is that cancer emerges via a multi-step progression at both the molecular and the morphologic level. The third is that loss of genomic stability
is a key molecular step in cancer formation. The fourth is that hereditary cancer syndromes frequently correspond to germ line forms of key genetic defects
whose somatic occurrences drive the emergence of sporadic colon cancers.