Role of cyclin polymorphisms in predicting outcome of 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy in colorectal cancer: one piece in a complex puzzle

The last 20 years has witnessed a significant increase in our knowledge and understanding of the complex pathways and molecular signals that are deregulated in colorectal cancer (CRC). This remarkable progress has been made possible through numerous technological advances and extensive collaborative efforts within the pharmaceutical, clinical and research communities and has led to the identification of promising new drug targets and the development of new drugs. However, despite this progress, CRC has been plagued with a high rate of drug development failure and progress remains largely incremental. Surprisingly, for the last 50 years, the antimetabolite 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) remains the most effective and widely used chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment for CRC.

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