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Project

Colorectal cancer: biological factors as molecular markers for a more targeted therapy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the third most common form of cancer and cancer related deaths in developed countries. The prognosis of CRC is largely determined by the extent of primary disease at the time of diagnosis. Although the introduction of new chemotherapeutic agents improved the prognosis of CRC over the past decades, the outlook for most patients remains poor and difficult to predict. Tumor recurrence after curative resection continues to be a significant problem in the management of CRC. Since CRC is not uniformly fatal and large differences in survival exist depending on stage of the disease, optimal patient selection for therapeutic intervention mandates strategies to individualize patient treatment using both prognostic and predictive indicators. These robust markers can better quantify the risks and benefits of a particular treatment approach for an individual patient. The TNM staging system is currently the most important determent of prognosis, however it does not allow for anaccurate prediction of the postoperative risk of tumor recurrence for individual patients. Therefore, identification of additional prognostic markers to supplement the standard clinical and pathological staging of the tumor is warranted. This study aims at investigating the prognostic value of several immunological parameters, as well as the role of two viral infections in CRC.
Date:1 Oct 2009 →  30 Sep 2011
Keywords:COLORECTAL CANCER
Disciplines:Morphological sciences, Oncology