Between cancer and therapy: Studies of the colon

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths worldwide. Surgical resection is the primary treatment modality, but can only be curative in the earliest stages of CRC. As these early stages often occur asymptomatically, much effort is being put into earlier detection by population based screenings. Nonetheless, the vast majority of diagnosed CRCs will need additional chemo-radiation therapy. Although more and more specific anti-cancer therapies are being developed, the standard of care remains treatment with cytotoxic agents that target both cancer and healthy cells resulting in severe toxicity.
In this thesis, we have investigated factors that influence the initiation of colorectal cancer (CRC), as well as mechanisms that manipulate resistance to conventional chemotherapy in established CRC.
Increasing our knowledge of both processes is instrumental to combat cancer better. Collectively, our results put forward novel candidates that play critical roles in these processes and may therefore serve as attractive targets in the development of new therapies that may ultimately prevent or treat CRC.