Clinical application of biomarkers in colon cancer : studies on apoptosis, proliferation and the immune system

Abstract

Colon cancer is a major contributor to can- cer-related mortality worldwide. Death from colon cancer occurs in the majority of cases from widespread metastatic disease. Only 15% of stage II colon cancer patients that develop metastasis will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, all of them will suffer from treatment-related toxicity. This makes it essential for the clinician to precisely identify the patient cohort at risk for metastasis. Prognostic biomarkers might improve current staging criteria. In this thesis a tumor biology-directed approach is applied to study and develop bio- markers focusing on tumor proliferation and evasion of apoptosis and immune destruction