School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2025
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, necessitating the continuous evolution of therapeutic approaches. Despite advancements in early detection and localized treatments, metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) poses significant challenges due to low survival rates and resistance to conventional therapies. This review highlights the current landscape of CRC treatment, focusing on chemotherapy and targeted therapies. Chemotherapeutic agents, including 5-fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin, have significantly improved survival but face limitations such as systemic toxicity and resistance. Targeted therapies, leveraging mechanisms like VEGF, EGFR, and Hedgehog pathway inhibition, offer promising alternatives, minimizing damage to healthy tissues while enhancing therapeutic precision. Furthermore, future directions in CRC treatment include exploring innovative targets such as Wnt/β-catenin, Notch, and TGF-β pathways, alongside IGF/IGF1R inhibition. These emerging strategies aim to address drug resistance and improve patient outcomes. This review emphasizes the importance of integrating molecular insights into drug development, advocating for a more personalized approach to combat CRC's complexity and heterogeneity.
Recommended Citation
Shaham, S. H., Vij, P., & Tripathi, M. K. (2025). Advances in Targeted and Chemotherapeutic Strategies for Colorectal Cancer: Current Insights and Future Directions. Biomedicines, 13(3), 642. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines13030642
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Biomedicines
DOI
10.3390/biomedicines13030642
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Immunology and Microbiology
Comments
© 2025 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).