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Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

According to the World Health Organization, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. It accounts for approximately 10% of all cancer cases and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.

In recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month this March, we have selected a collection of articles on colorectal cancer from across our open access oncology portfolio. Together, these articles contribute to the evolving landscape of colorectal cancer research and the fight against this prevalent and impactful disease.

Articles published in this retrospective collection have already gone through the systematic peer review process of each participating journal.


  1. Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy in the treatment of colorectal cancer, and relapse after tumor immunotherapy has attracted increasing attention. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subse...

    Authors: Qi Zhao, Hong Zong, Pingping Zhu, Chang Su, Wenxue Tang, Zhenzhen Chen and Shuiling Jin
    Citation: Experimental Hematology & Oncology 2024 13:6
    Content type: Review Published on:

  2. Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) is a radiation technique applying a single fraction with a high dose during surgery. We report the first abdomino-pelvic application of an image-guided intraoperative el...

    Authors: Falk Roeder, Gerd Fastner, Christoph Fussl, Felix Sedlmayer, Markus Stana, Johannes Berchtold, Tarkan Jäger, Jaroslav Presl, Philipp Schredl, Klaus Emmanuel, Daniela Colleselli, Gabriel Kotolacsi, Philipp Scherer, Philipp Steininger and Christoph Gaisberger
    Citation: Radiation Oncology 2023 18:186
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Although the role of viral agents, such as human papillomavirus (e.g. HPV16, HPV18) in colorectal cancer (CRC) has been previously investigated, results remain inconclusive.

    Authors: Luisa Galati, Purnima Gupta, Antonio Tufaro, Mariarosaria Marinaro, Concetta Saponaro, David Israel Escobar Marcillo, Donato Loisi, Rajdip Sen, Alexis Robitaille, Rosario N. Brancaccio, Cyrille Cuenin, Sandrine McKay-Chopin, Angelo Virgilio Paradiso, Václav Liška, Pavel Souček, Francesco Alfredo Zito…
    Citation: Infectious Agents and Cancer 2023 18:71
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Manual clinical target volume (CTV) and gross tumor volume (GTV) delineation for rectal cancer neoadjuvant radiotherapy is pivotal but labor-intensive. This study aims to propose a deep learning (DL)-based wor...

    Authors: Jianhao Geng, Xianggao Zhu, Zhiyan Liu, Qi Chen, Lu Bai, Shaobin Wang, Yongheng Li, Hao Wu, Haizhen Yue and Yi Du
    Citation: Radiation Oncology 2023 18:164
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Colorectal cancer is a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. A third of colorectal cancers reside in the rectum. Many patients with rectal cancer present in the locally-advanced stage which needs mul...

    Authors: Parmida Sadat Pezeshki and Reza Ghalehtaki
    Citation: Biomarker Research 2023 11:81
    Content type: Correspondence Published on:

  6. Hypercholesterolemia is often correlated with obesity which is considered a risk factor for various cancers. With the growing population of hypercholesterolemic individuals, there is a need to understand the r...

    Authors: Shyamananda Singh Mayengbam, Abhijeet Singh, Himanshi Yaduvanshi, Firoz Khan Bhati, Bhavana Deshmukh, Dipti Athavale, Pranay L. Ramteke and Manoj Kumar Bhat
    Citation: Cancer & Metabolism 2023 11:15
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Cancer & Metabolism 2023 11:19

  7. UTX (encoded by KDM6A), a histone demethylase for H3K27me2/3, is frequently mutated in human cancers. However, its functional and regulatory mechanisms in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain unclear.

    Authors: Dakui Luo, Min Chen, Qingguo Li, Kangjunjie Wang, Kaihua Wang, Junqiang Li, Guoxiang Fu, Zezhi Shan, Qi Liu, Yufei Yang, Lei Liang, Yanlei Ma, Yi Qin, Jun Qin, Daming Gao and Xinxiang Li
    Citation: Experimental Hematology & Oncology 2023 12:77
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Metastasis is the principal cause of cancer treatment failure and an area of dire diagnostic needs. Colorectal cancer metastases to the liver (CRCLMs) are predominantly classified into desmoplastic and replace...

    Authors: Migmar Tsamchoe, Anthoula Lazaris, Diane Kim, Lucyna Krzywon, Jessica Bloom, Thomas Mayer, Stephanie K Petrillo, Kurt Dejgaard, Zu-Hua Gao, Janusz Rak and Peter Metrakos
    Citation: BJC Reports 2023 1:8
    Content type: Article Published on:

  9. After neoadjuvant therapy, most of the lymph nodes (LNs) will shrink and disappear in patients with rectal cancer. However, LNs that are still detectable on MRI carry a risk of metastasis. This study aimed to ...

    Authors: Zhiwen Zhang, Yan Chen, Ziqiang Wen, Xuehan Wu, Yutao Que, Yuru Ma, Yunzhu Wu, Quanmeng Liu, Wenjie Fan and Shenping Yu
    Citation: Cancer Imaging 2023 23:67
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. It has been manifested in several studies that age-related metabolic reprogramming is associated with tumor progression, in particular, colorectal cancer (CRC). Here we investigated the role of upregulated met...

    Authors: Chunhua Hu, Mujie Ye, Jianan Bai, Pengfei Liu, Feiyu Lu, Jinhao Chen, Ping Yu, Tiaotiao Chen, Xiaoting Shi and Qiyun Tang
    Citation: Cancer Cell International 2023 23:131
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Chemoresistance is a major cause of treatment failure in colorectal cancer (CRC) therapy. In this study, the impact of the IGF2BP family of RNA-binding proteins on CRC chemoresistance was investigated using in...

    Authors: Sandra Kendzia, Susanne Franke, Tarek Kröhler, Nicole Golob-Schwarzl, Caroline Schweiger, Anna M. Toeglhofer, Christina Skofler, Stefan Uranitsch, Amin El-Heliebi, Julia Fuchs, Andreas Punschart, Philipp Stiegler, Marlen Keil, Jens Hoffmann, David Henderson, Hans Lehrach…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:89
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Methylation of the p16 promoter resulting in epigenetic gene silencing—known as p16 epimutation—is frequently found in human colorectal cancer and is also common in normal-appearing colonic mucosa of aging indivi...

    Authors: Li Yang, Xiaomin Chen, Christy Lee, Jiejun Shi, Emily B. Lawrence, Lanjing Zhang, Yumei Li, Nan Gao, Sung Yun Jung, Chad J. Creighton, Jingyi Jessica Li, Ya Cui, Sumimasa Arimura, Yunping Lei, Wei Li and Lanlan Shen
    Citation: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2023 42:113
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. The alpha-fetoprotein receptor (AFPR) is a novel target for cancer therapeutics. It is expressed on most cancers and myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) but generally absent on normal tissues. Studies wer...

    Authors: Patricia Griffin, Wendy A. Hill, Fabio Rossi, Rebecca Boohaker, Karr Stinson and Igor Sherman
    Citation: Cancer Cell International 2023 23:60
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. We propose a new approach for designing personalized treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, by combining ex vivo organoid efficacy testing with mathematical modeling of the results.

    Authors: George M. Ramzy, Maxim Norkin, Thibaud Koessler, Lionel Voirol, Mathieu Tihy, Dina Hany, Thomas McKee, Frédéric Ris, Nicolas Buchs, Mylène Docquier, Christian Toso, Laura Rubbia-Brandt, Gaetan Bakalli, Stéphane Guerrier, Joerg Huelsken and Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska
    Citation: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2023 42:79
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. In this narrative review, we reported un up-to-date on the role of radiomics to assess prognostic features, which can impact on the liver metastases patient treatment choice. In the liver metastases patients, ...

    Authors: Vincenza Granata, Roberta Fusco, Sergio Venanzio Setola, Roberta Galdiero, Nicola Maggialetti, Renato Patrone, Alessandro Ottaiano, Guglielmo Nasti, Lucrezia Silvestro, Antonio Cassata, Francesca Grassi, Antonio Avallone, Francesco Izzo and Antonella Petrillo
    Citation: Infectious Agents and Cancer 2023 18:18
    Content type: Review Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Infectious Agents and Cancer 2023 18:28

  16. This study aimed to evaluate the association between preoperative hs-cTnI and long-term mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in colorectal cancer patients.

    Authors: Yitao Zhang, Zicheng Huang, Sutian Hu, Jinhong Si, Shiyao Cheng, Zhichong Chen, Jiaojie Xue, Xue Lou, Huajing Peng, Zequan Li, Mao Ouyang, Xiang Gao and Weijie Zeng
    Citation: Cardio-Oncology 2023 9:12
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. As a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), orally administrated capecitabine (CAP) undergoes preliminary conversion into active metabolites in the liver and then releases 5-FU in the gut to exert the anti-tumor ac...

    Authors: Chun Ge, Xintong Huang, Sujie Zhang, Man Yuan, Zhaoyi Tan, Chen Xu, Qiong Jie, Jingjing Zhang, Jianjun Zou, Yubing Zhu, Dong Feng, Yue Zhang and Jiye Aa
    Citation: Cancer Cell International 2023 23:14
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. BRAF mutations are the oncogenic drivers in colorectal cancer and V600 mutations (Class1), which lead to RAS-independent active monomers, are the most common mutation types. BRAF non-V600 mutants can be further ...

    Authors: Yungchang Chen, Hao Sun, Yanhong Deng, Yutong Ma, He Huang, Yang Liu, Yaru Zhang, Hongyu Zhang, Sheng Ye, Mingyan E, Hongqiang Guo, Mengmeng Wu, Chunman Wu, Xingxiang Pu, Xinggui Chen, Chaoyong Liang…
    Citation: Biomarker Research 2023 11:11
    Content type: Correspondence Published on:

  19. Colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLM) are associated with a poor prognosis, reflected by a five-year survival rate of 14%. Anti-angiogenic therapy through anti-VEGF antibody administration is one of the l...

    Authors: Johannes Robert Fleischer, Alexandra Maria Schmitt, Gwendolyn Haas, Xingbo Xu, Elisabeth Maria Zeisberg, Hanibal Bohnenberger, Stefan Küffer, Laure-Anne Teuwen, Philipp Johannes Karras, Tim Beißbarth, Annalen Bleckmann, Mélanie Planque, Sarah-Maria Fendt, Peter Vermeulen, Michael Ghadimi, Joanna Kalucka…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:17
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Arginase-1 (ARG1), a urea cycle-related enzyme, catalyzes the hydrolysis of arginine to urea and ornithine, which regulates the proliferation, differentiation, and function of various cells. However, it is unc...

    Authors: Xiangdong Wang, Huihui Xiang, Yujiro Toyoshima, Weidong Shen, Shunsuke Shichi, Hiroki Nakamoto, Saori Kimura, Ko Sugiyama, Shigenori Homma, Yohei Miyagi, Akinobu Taketomi and Hidemitsu Kitamura
    Citation: Cancer & Metabolism 2023 11:1
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. To investigate the role of preoperative body composition analysis for muscle and adipose tissue distribution on long-term oncological outcomes in patients with middle and low rectal cancer (RC) who received cu...

    Authors: Jiyang Liu, Xiongfeng Yu, Xueqing Huang, Qingquan Lai and Jieyun Chen
    Citation: Cancer Imaging 2023 23:5
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world, and a strong relationship exists between CRC and gut microbiota, which affects the occurrence, development, and metastasis of cancer. Bioin...

    Authors: Yuxiao Chang, Ziran Huang, Fengyi Hou, Yuejiao Liu, Likun Wang, Zhen Wang, Yifan Sun, Zhiyuan Pan, Yafang Tan, Lei Ding, Hong Gao, Ruifu Yang and Yujing Bi
    Citation: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2023 42:13
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) from advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients could be a key platform to predict drug response and discover new biomarkers. We aimed to integrate PDO drug response with multi-...

    Authors: Federica Papaccio, Blanca García-Mico, Francisco Gimeno-Valiente, Manuel Cabeza-Segura, Valentina Gambardella, María Fernanda Gutiérrez-Bravo, Clara Alfaro-Cervelló, Carolina Martinez-Ciarpaglini, Pilar Rentero-Garrido, Sheila Zúñiga-Trejos, Juan Antonio Carbonell-Asins, Tania Fleitas, Susana Roselló, Marisol Huerta, Manuel M. Sánchez del Pino, Luís Sabater…
    Citation: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2023 42:8
    Content type: Research Published on: