Advances In The Molecular Understanding Of Colorectal Cancer

An understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of colorectal cancer by researchers and clinicians is essential to facilitate progress in improving patient outcomes in this common cancer that still carries a poor prognosis if not identified early. This book covers the major areas of importance in the field, incorporating new knowledge that has arisen due to the advancement of molecular techniques and the ability to correlate molecular changes with clinical behaviour of tumours. Each chapter is a summary written by experts, concisely summarising current data as well as highlighting potential areas for advancement. Appreciating the differences between tumours on a molecular level is the key to developing and delivering precision medicine, and nowhere is this more critically required than in the field of colorectal cancer.

An understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of colorectal cancer by researchers and clinicians is essential to facilitate progress in improving patient outcomes in this common cancer that still carries a poor prognosis if not identified early. This book covers the major areas of importance in the field, incorporating new knowledge that has arisen due to the advancement of molecular techniques and the ability to correlate molecular changes with clinical behaviour of tumours. Each chapter is a summary written by experts, concisely summarising current data as well as highlighting potential areas for advancement. Appreciating the differences between tumours on a molecular level is the key to developing and delivering precision medicine, and nowhere is this more critically required than in the field of colorectal cancer.

The rapid growth in the number of options available for the management of colorectal cancer presents the clinician with new opportunities and new complexities. An explosion of understanding in the basic science that underlies both the disease and its potential therapies has translated into remarkable technological advances that can now be applied. So many specialties and subspecialties have now been brought to bear that it is appropriate to attempt to bring the expertise from these areas together in one volume, so that practitioners in one aspect of colorectal cancer management can maintain knowledge and expertise regarding the capabilities of other colleagues working in this disease. Colo rectal Cancer: Multimodality Management provides a concise, focused, and current review of the methodological and technological advances that have recently occurred in the management of colorectal cancer. The book has been divided into six basic parts. The first part, dealing with epidemiology and prevention, focuses on the molecular genetic events that occur in the development of colorectal cancer, as well as on our understanding of dietary and environmental factors, and possible strategies for prevention. Part II focuses on both diagnos tic and therapeutic radiology in the management of colorectal cancer, dealing with innumer able advances in imaging, and with the progress in the science and art of radiation therapy. The third section deals with the surgical aspects of management of colorectal cancer, starting with surgical pathology.

Colorectal cancer has for more than two decades served as the paradigm for the multi-step concept of cancer initiation and progression. Perhaps more than any other organ site, cancer of the colon is extensively characterized at the molecular level. We are now entering a time when molecular classification, rather than histologic classification, of cancer subtypes is driving the development of clinical trials with emerging targeted therapies. The book will focus on the progression from the identification of mutations that drive colorectal cancer initiation and progression to the search for novel therapies to treat the disease.

From surgery to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, attempts to conquer colorectal cancer have been ongoing for a century. Due to these efforts, the mortality rate of colorectal cancer has decreased by about 3% per year for the past 10 years. Progress in reducing mortality from colorectal cancer can be accelerated by improving screening and the use of standard care in all populations. In recent years, advanced knowledge and technologies for better efficiency in targeting colorectal cancer have been developed to improve conventional therapeutics or to propose new therapies as standard regimens. This book discusses diagnostics as well as surgical techniques using robotics, immunotherapy, and radiology-based therapy for colorectal cancer. The section on diagnostics provides information on proteomics, organoid culture techniques, and various candidate markers. The section on treatment discusses robotic surgical techniques for rectal cancer care and multidisciplinary approaches for colorectal cancer treatment. The book also examines the latest in supportive care from a nutritional and metabolic point of view.