Dr. Kopetz on the Correlation Between Tumor Sidedness and Biomarkers in CRC

Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, FACP, associate professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the correlation between tumor sidedness and biomarkers in colorectal cancer (CRC).

There is continued work to try to understand the relationship between the location of the tumor and significant biomarkers in CRC, Kopetz says. For example, integrating sidedness into the understanding of molecular alterations and other epigenetic features such as microRNAs is still an unanswered question. Researchers are beginning to see that tumor sidedness involves a lot of the biomarkers that are seen in CRC.

Sidedness is a unique biomarker in that by determining the location of the tumor, physicians can understand a lot of the disease’s biological features. Kopetz concludes that several ongoing studies are trying to dissect out how much of the biology can be attributed purely to the location of the tumor.