Cell Mol Life Sci. 2006 Feb 23; [Epub ahead of print]
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Colorectal carcinoma: from tumorigenesis to treatment.

Wang WS, Chen PM, Su Y.

Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a complicated and often fatal genetic disease. Fortunately, owing to rapid expansion of knowledge and technology development in oncology, much progress has been made regarding the diagnosis, understanding of the molecular genetics and malignant progression, as well as the novel regimens of CRC. In this review, we summarize the staging system, the most critical genetic and epigenetic alterations, the pleiotropic effects of MMP-7, the controversial roles of Hedgehog signaling, the intriguing involvement of thymosin beta-4, and the possible contribution of the putative colon (cancer) stem cells in CRC tumorigenesis. Current treatments as well as several potentially applicable therapeutic strategies for CRC are also discussed.

Sonic hedgehog mRNA expression by real-time quantitative PCR in normal and tumor tissues from colorectal cancer patients.

Monzo M, Moreno I, Artells R, Ibeas R, Navarro A, Moreno J, Hernandez R, Granell M, Pie J.

Department of Anatomy, Faculty Medicine UB, Casanova 143, 08036 Barcelona, Spain.

Shh is expressed in the early stages of embryogenesis and in the foregut development. Although Shh has been shown to be overexpressed in brain, pancreas, gastric and lung cancers, its role in the development of colorectal cancer has not been examined. We used real-time quantitative PCR to assess Shh mRNA expression levels in tumor and matched normal tissue from 57 colorectal cancer patients and correlated the results with patient clinicopathological characteristics. Shh expression levels were higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue from the same patient (P=0.00001). Higher levels of Shh expression were associated with early stage disease (P=0.02). Shh overexpression may influence the development of colorectal cancer.

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