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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2018; 6(15): 869-881
Published online Dec 6, 2018. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v6.i15.869
Biomarkers in colorectal cancer: Current clinical utility and future perspectives
Marco Vacante, Antonio Maria Borzì, Francesco Basile, Antonio Biondi
Marco Vacante, Antonio Maria Borzì, Francesco Basile, Antonio Biondi, Department of General Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Italy
Author contributions: Vacante M, Basile F and Biondi A contributed to the paper regarding conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, Borzì AM contributed to literature review, editing and critical revision; all authors approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected byan in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Antonio Biondi, PhD, Full Professor, Department of General Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties, University of Catania, Azienda Ospedaliero - Universitaria “Policlinico - Vittorio Emanuele” Via Santa Sofia 76, Catania 95123, Italy. abiondi@unict.it
Telephone: +39-95-7435151 Fax: +39-95-457345
Received: September 1, 2018
Peer-review started: September 1, 2018
First decision: October 11, 2018
Revised: October 30, 2018
Accepted: November 7, 2018
Article in press: November 7, 2018
Published online: December 6, 2018
Processing time: 98 Days and 4.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in the world today. Therefore, any improvement in early diagnosis, selection of appropriate treatment regimen, and effective follow up can be crucial in decreasing related mortalities. This review discusses the most useful and promising genetic and epigenetic biomarkers for CRC. There is growing evidence that these biomarkers could help future development of more personalized treatment approaches.