Research developments of the signal pathways relevant to colorectal carcinoma

Colorectal carcinoma is a series of highly heterogeneous complex diseases rather than a kind of disease. Every patient with colorectal cancer has respective genetics and epigenetics backgrounds. There is ample evidence that the transformation of cells from normal cells to tumor cells is brought about by the disorder of signal regulation mechanism. There is abnormal signal transduction in the process of tumor formation, and the disorder of signal transduction seems to be necessary in tumorigenesis. The cell signal transduction pathways relevant to colorectal cancer mainly include Wnt-β-catenin signal pathway, Hedgehog signal pathway, Notch signal pathway, TGFβ-Smads signal pathway, Jak-STAT signal pathway, Ras-Raf-MAPK signal pathway and PI3K-Akt-mTOR signal pathway. This article reviewed the research developments in the signal pathways relevant to colorectal carcinoma. Key words: Colorectal neoplasms; Individualized therapy; Molecular heterogeneity; Signal pathway