Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer: Time to Bring the Technology Together for an Integrated, Multiplatform Approach for Personalised Cancer Control

Dear Colleagues,

The wider availability of biomarkers has been associated with improvements in survival probability and mortality rates in patients with cancer. In recent times, there has been an exponential growth in the development of biomarkers in colorectal cancer across multiple disciplines providing valuable prognostic and predictive information. These range from well-established tissue-based biomarkers on genetic mutations to novel techniques utilising circulating tumour DNA, susceptibility gene signatures, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenetic markers amongst others. The exciting venture of biomarker discovery in colorectal cancer focuses widely on the tumour microenvironment to immune modulation and harnesses artificial intelligence to create innovative platforms such as radiomics and digital pathology.

Despite the recent advances in therapeutics and biomarkers, colorectal cancer remains the third most common malignancy and the second most deadly cancer worldwide. It is disappointing to see the vast number of new biomarker discoveries failing to reach standard clinical practice or translate into meaningful patient outcomes. There is an unmet need for point of care biomarkers in colorectal cancer with a potential for global application in varied income and resource settings. However, there is limited utility in the application of a single biomarker on its own, in improving outcomes in colorectal cancer globally. There is an overwhelming urgency to bring together the expertise and technology to develop a globally applicable, integrated, multiplatform approach to biomarker development to deliver truly personalised care in colorectal cancer. The Special Issue of Cancers on ‘Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer’ aims to deliver this vision by presenting the most up to date evidence with an interdisciplinary scope and global perspective. We would encourage submissions across the spectrum of cancer control–genetic susceptibility, screening, prognosis and risk of recurrence following resection/ablation of primary and secondary disease, predictive markers, enabling selection of patients for specific therapeutic agents and pharmacogenetic markers to improve patient safety. Similarly, we would be pleased to see a variety of methodologies (tissue and blood based) and approaches spanning genomics, metabolomics, AI, digital pathology and radiomics.

Prof. Dr. David Kerr
Dr. Jeffrey Rubasingham
Guest Editors

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