Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 14, 2024; 30(26): 3257-3260
Published online Jul 14, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i26.3257
Photo-activated microtubule targeting drugs: Advancing therapies for colorectal cancer
Naresh Singh, Samantha Sharma
Naresh Singh, Samantha Sharma, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Author contributions: Singh N and Sharma S conceived the idea and wrote the manuscript; Singh N and Sharma S contributed equally to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: Https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Samantha Sharma, PhD, Research Scientist, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, 980 W Walnut Street, R3.C260, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States. samshar@iu.edu
Received: April 16, 2024
Revised: June 11, 2024
Accepted: June 24, 2024
Published online: July 14, 2024
Processing time: 84 Days and 10.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: While progress has been made in colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment, significant challenges remain, as highlighted by the persistently low five-year survival rate. Integrating chemotherapy with other targeted therapies has shown promise, particularly in immune cold microsatellite stable or mutation-related CRCs. The emergence of personalized medicine, leveraging photo-switchable microtubule (MT)-targeted drugs, represents a novel approach in CRC management. While traditional MT-targeted drugs like taxanes have shown limited efficacy in CRC, optically controlled MT-drugs hold potential for improving treatment outcomes in CRC patients.