Title:Anti-metastatic Treatment in Colorectal Cancer: Targeting Signaling Pathways
Volume: 19
Issue: 5
Author(s): Clara Lemos, Ulrike Sack, Felicitas Schmid, Manisha Juneja and Ulrike Stein
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Colorectal cancer, HGF/Met pathway, metastasis, molecular therapeutics, Wnt/β-catenin pathway, tumor, chemotherapy, bevacizumab, cetuximab, panitumumab
Abstract: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the
Western world. Tumor progression towards metastasis affects a large number of patients with colorectal cancer and seriously affects their
clinical outcome. Therefore, considerable effort has been made towards the development of therapeutic strategies that can decrease or
prevent colorectal cancer metastasis. Standard treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer with chemotherapy has been improved in the last
10 years by the addition of new targeted agents. The currently used antibodies bevacizumab, cetuximab and panitumumab target the
VEGF and EGFR signaling pathways, which are crucial for tumor progression and metastasis. These antibodies have shown relevant efficacy
in both first- and second-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Additionally, other signaling pathways, including the Wnt
and HGF/Met pathways, have a well-established role in colorectal cancer progression and metastasis and constitute, therefore, promising
targets for new therapeutic approaches. Several new drugs targeting these pathways, including different antibodies and small-molecule
tyrosine kinase inhibitors, are currently being developed and tested in clinical trials. In this review, we summarize the new developments
in this field, focusing on the inhibitors that show more promising results for use in colorectal cancer patients.
