Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a malignant disease arising in the colon or rectum.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a malignant disease arising in the colon or rectum. It is biologically heterogeneous and may differ in its molecular alterations, interaction with the tumor microenvironment, treatment sensitivity, and clinical prognosis. Research on CRC spans tumor proliferation, migration, apoptosis, immune regulation, metabolic stress, and response to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The literature themes supplied for this entity include KRAS-associated chemotherapy survival, transforming growth factor (TGF) signaling and apoptosis, immune checkpoint biology, and prediction of fluorouracil response using artificial intelligence. Other recurring areas include single-cell RNA-seq analysis of the tumor microenvironment, cytotoxic T-cell function, CD274 molecule-associated immune regulation, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a prognostic variable, ferroptosis and oxidative stress, and minimally invasive or robot-assisted surgery. Experimental studies frequently use CRC cell models such as HCT 116 and assess molecular changes using western blotting or immunohistochemistry.
- Comparison of an ensemble machine learning model to a Cox regression model to predict colorectal cancer risk among people with HIV using retrospective nationwide cohort data in Sweden: a study protocol. PMID 42716689
Where the papers sit
18 papers study colorectal cancer directly. The themes below are drawn from those 18. 1 new direction follows.
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Tumor Immunity and Resistance : Combination treatment is moving beyond cytotoxic therapy toward immune, epigenetic, metabolic and ferroptotic strategies. Recurring mechanisms include KRAS-AGO2 signaling, arginine depletion, 7SK-mediated transcriptional repression and 5-HT2AR modulation. 7 papers · 38.9%
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Colorectal Surgical Care : Robotic colorectal surgery is moving toward reduced-port, standardized platforms, while perioperative work tracks delirium, readmissions, length of stay, mortality and travel-related delays. 4 papers · 22.2%
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Experimental Anticancer Therapies : Preclinical treatment centers on testing targeted, viral and cellular therapies in colorectal cancer models. Approaches include fruquintinib plus TAS-102, WEE1 inhibition, oncolytic measles and mumps viruses, and CD133-targeted CAR-NK cells. 4 papers · 22.2%
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Others — Cancer Risk and Pain Care : Risk prediction and opioid-prescribing analyses sit side by side, spanning microbial signatures, Cox and machine-learning models, HIV cohorts and chronic pain care. 3 papers · 16.7%
Colorectal cancer is shown as a systemic suppressor of atherosclerosis, not only a disease to treat
The study of colorectal cancer–atherosclerosis comorbidity found that tumors reduced atherosclerotic plaque burden and increased plaque stability in patients and in three mouse models, because tumor-driven arginine depletion reprogrammed plaque T cells toward oxidative phosphorylation, weakening cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory interactions 42608528Aug. This assigns colorectal cancer a role outside the set’s usual treatment, diagnosis, prognosis, and perioperative-care categories: it acts as a systemic modifier of another disease, suggesting that tumor metabolism can reshape—and in this case suppress—atherogenesis.
Recent Findings on colorectal cancer
Tumor Immunity and Resistance: 7SK drives colorectal cancer resistance through “local activation-global suppression”: it activates the JUN transcriptional network while reducing global transcriptional entropy, stabilizing an immunosuppressive microenvironment and promoting immune escape 42709882Sep. Integrated multi-omics identified altered immune-related pathways and candidate regulators, including IL10, LEP, ITGAM, EGFR, STAT2, HSF1 and CDK2 42674818Aug. Disrupting KRAS-AGO2 with peptide-gold nanoparticles restored let-7c-5p, reduced KRAS, c-Myc and Bcl2, sensitized cells to 5-fluorouracil, and improved immunotherapy responsiveness through PD-L1 down-regulation 42622908Aug. Peripheral 5-HT2AR activation recruited and polarized CD8+ T cells through enteric glial-cell CXCL10 and interleukin (IL)-18, enhancing PD-1 blockade, whereas tumor-driven arginine depletion suppressed T-cell inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques; arginine supplementation reversed that atheroprotective effect 42551424Aug42608528Aug. US-EV delivery combined sonosensitization with YTHDF1-targeting siRNA, while QD394 induced ferroptosis through the SP1/JNK pathway, directing treatment development toward immune, epigenetic and regulated-cell-death strategies 42309466Jun42090009May.
Colorectal Surgical Care: Travel distance, surgical invasiveness and platform organization shape colorectal cancer care. Veterans traveling more than 100 miles experienced an 11.8-day longer interval to initial treatment, but distance did not affect length of stay, 30-day readmissions or mortality 42675007Aug. Age at least 80 years and open surgery independently predicted postoperative delirium and longer hospitalization, supporting the least invasive feasible procedure for older patients 42665375Aug. A standardized 3 + 1 reduced-port BMR-5000 approach achieved 100% non-conversion without device-related Clavien-Dindo grade III or higher complications in a prospective trial 42474928Jul. A regional cancer center reached 254 annual robot-assisted surgery cases and exceeded its 200–250-case break-even threshold through cross-departmental volume planning, pointing toward standardized reduced-port surgery and high-utilization robotic platforms 42627549Aug.
Experimental Anticancer Therapies: Fruquintinib plus TAS-102 suppressed colorectal cancer xenograft growth more strongly than either agent alone, with increased intratumor trifluridine and combined anti-angiogenic and DNA damage response effects 42533327Jul. A selective macrocyclic WEE1 inhibitor showed stronger WEE1 selectivity over PLK1 and potent activity in patient-derived organoids from colorectal cancer peritoneal and liver metastases 42623604Aug. Combined vaccine-strain measles and mumps viruses produced synergistic oncolysis, greater apoptosis, slower xenograft growth and longer survival than single-virus treatment 42700211Sep. CD133-targeted CAR-NK92MI cells increased cytotoxicity and IFN-γ secretion while reducing invasion and tumor-spheroid growth in vitro and in vivo 42462589Jul. These models support continued testing of combination drugs, macrocyclic kinase inhibitors, oncolytic viruses and off-the-shelf cellular therapies before clinical evaluation.
Fecal qPCR models using afb, nan, fsr and 5ar generated a colorectal cancer probability score with an area under the curve of 0.824, while performance fell to 0.716 for colorectal adenoma 42315484Jun. A nationwide Swedish protocol will compare an ensemble machine-learning model with Cox proportional regression to personalize colorectal cancer screening for people with HIV 42716689Sep. In older SEER-Medicare patients, pre-existing chronic non-cancer pain increased opioid prescribing, including chronic opioid use among patients with colorectal cancer 42525681Jul. These studies extend colorectal cancer assessment from microbial signatures toward population-specific risk prediction while emphasizing careful opioid prescribing for patients with chronic pain.
Written from 18 PubMed abstracts, each one cited by PMID above. Published: 2026-08-23. Last written: 2026-09-11 by GPT. Drafted by language models from published abstracts; not medical advice.