Colorectal Cancer and the Intersection between Basic and Clinical Research
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Colorectal cancer provides an excellent example of a human tumor type that can be productively studied. The reasons for this are simple: Such tumors are prevalent and progress through easily recognizable stages ranging from very small benign polyps (adenomas) to large malignant cancers (carcinomas). Tumors representing each of these stages can be easily obtained, examined biochemically and genetically, and compared with appropriate control cells from normal colorectal epithelium. In the past few years, the study of colorectal cancer has also provided an example of a different sort—demonstrating how research in basic areas of cell physiology and biochemistry can have a direct and unexpected impact on understanding common human diseases. In this review, we focus on two recent developments that illustrate this intersection between basic and clinical research.
BACKGROUND
Our current model for colorectal tumorigenesis is illustrated in Figure 1. The process appears to result from waves of clonal expansions, each...
