Important molecular genetic markers of colorectal cancer

Abstract

// Anna V. Kudryavtseva 1,2,* , Anastasia V. Lipatova 1,* , Andrew R. Zaretsky 3 , Alexey A. Moskalev 1 ,Maria S. Fedorova 1,2 ,Anastasiya S. Rasskazova 1 ,Galina A. Shibukhova 2 ,Anastasiya V. Snezhkina 1 , Andrey D. Kaprin 2 , Boris Y. Alekseev 2 ,Alexey A. Dmitriev 1 and George S. Krasnov 4,1 1 Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 2 National Medical Research Radiological Centre, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia 3 Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 4 Orekhovich Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Anna V. Kudryavtseva, email: // Keywords : colorectal cancer, molecular markers, chromosomal instability, microsatellite instability, CpG island methylator phenotype Received : November 21, 2015 Accepted : May 21, 2016 Published : June 02, 2016 Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks third in the incidences of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. CRC is rather heterogeneous with regard to molecular genetic characteristics and pathogenic pathways. A wide spectrum of biomarkers is used for molecular subtype determination, prognosis, and estimation of sensitivity to different drugs in practice. These biomarkers can include germline and somatic mutations, chromosomal aberrations, genomic abnormalities, gene expression alterations at mRNA or protein level and changes in DNA methylation status. In the present review we discuss the most important and well-studied CRC biomarkers, and their potential clinical significance and current approaches to molecular classification of colorectal tumors.