Concise Review: Aggressive Colorectal Cancer: Role of Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule in Cancer Stem Cells and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition.

ABSTRACT: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. In spite of various attempts to ameliorate outcome by escalating treatment, significant improvement is lacking particularly in the adjuvant setting. It has been proposed that cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are at least partially responsible for therapy resistance in CRC. The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) was one of the first CSC antigens to be described. Furthermore, an EpCAM-specific antibody (edrecolomab) has the merit of having launched the era of monoclonal antibody treatment in oncology in the 1990s. However, despite great initial enthusiasm, monoclonal antibody treatment has not proven successful in the adjuvant treatment of CRC patients. In the meantime,

SUBMITTER: Boesch M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5980125 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature