General Aspects of Colorectal Cancer

Abstract EN

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main causes of death.

Cancer is initiated by several DNA damages, affecting proto-oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes, and DNA repairing genes.

The molecular origins of CRC are chromosome instability (CIN), microsatellite instability (MSI), and CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP).

A brief description of types of CRC cancer is presented, including sporadic CRC, hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) or Lynch syndromes, familiar adenomatous polyposis (FAP), MYH-associated polyposis (MAP), Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS), and juvenile polyposis syndrome (JPS).

Some signalling systems for CRC are also described, including Wnt-β-catenin pathway, tyrosine kinase receptors pathway, TGF-β pathway, and Hedgehog pathway.

Finally, this paper describes also some CRC treatments.