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Review
. 2024 Dec 2;16(23):4047.
doi: 10.3390/cancers16234047.

Landscape of Biomarkers and Pathologic Response in Rectal Cancer: Where We Stand?

Abrahams Ocanto  1   2   3 , Macarena Teja  1   2 , Francesco Amorelli  4 , Felipe Couñago  1   2   5 , Ariel Gomez Palacios  6 , Diego Alcaraz  7 , Ramón Cantero  8   9
Affiliations
Review

Landscape of Biomarkers and Pathologic Response in Rectal Cancer: Where We Stand?

Abrahams Ocanto et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a neoplasm with a high prevalence worldwide, with a multimodal treatment that includes a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery in locally advanced stages with acceptable pathological complete response (pCR) rates, this has improved with the introduction of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) reaching pCR rates up to 37% in compare with classic neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) where pCR rates of around 20-25% are achieved. However, the patient population that benefits most from this therapy has not been determined, and there is a lack of biomarkers that can predict the course of the disease. Multiple biomarkers have been studied, ranging from hematological and molecular markers by imaging technique and combinations of them, with contradictory results that prevent their use in routine clinical practice. In this review, we evaluate the most robust prognostic biomarkers to be used in clinical practice, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages and emphasizing biomarker combinations and their predictive value.

Keywords: biomarkers; rectal cancer; total neoadjuvant therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Authors Abrahams Ocanto, Macarena Teja, Felipe Couñago and Diego Alcaraz were employed by the company GenesisCare. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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