Research progress of colorectal cancer in genomic and transcriptomic at multi-level

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is a common malignant tumor in the gastrointestinal tract, and the mechanisms of its occurrence, development, and metastasis have always been the focus of the medical community's attention. The study of CRC genetic mechanisms began with the identification of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes and their key pathways. With further research, researchers gradually realized that single genes or pathways alone could not explain the occurrence, development, and metastasis of CRC. The development of bulk sequencing technology has helped us to analyze the occurrence, development, and metastasis mechanisms of CRC from a multi-gene, multi-pathway, and multi-dimensional perspective, but it has not brought significant benefits to the clinical treatment of tumors. The main reason for this is that bulk sequencing technology relies on homogeneous cell grouping and cannot capture the heterogeneity between cells within the tumor and the interactions within the tumor microenvironment. The development of single-cell technology has made it possible to study the mechanisms of heterogeneity between cells within CRC and the interaction within the tumor microenvironment. This review discusses the mechanisms of CRC occurrence and development in three stages: traditional molecular biology level of single gene, bulk sequencing, and single-cell sequencing. These results show that the occurrence of CRC is the result of complex interactions between genetic and non-genetic factors in somatic cell evolution, where the heterogeneity between cells within the tumor and the tumor microenvironment are crucial for CRC progression.

Keywords: CRC (colorectal cancer); evolutionary genomics; single-cell genomics; tumor heterogeneity; tumor microenvironment.