Cyclooxygenase, cancer stem cells and DNA methylation play important roles in colorectal carcinogenesis

Many effective anticancer therapies against colorectal cancer have been developed, but chemoresistance and recurrence are still inevitable problems and their counter measures are urgently needed. Recently, cancer stem cells have been indicated to play a pivotal role in chemoresistance and recurrence and have gained attention as a novel target. On the other hand, both aberrant hyper- and hypomethylation have been shown to be involved in carcinogenesis and the simultaneous amendment is indispensable. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) has already been reported to play an important role in carcinogenesis. Our latest study indicates that COX-2 inhibitors remedy aberrant methylation and beat cancer stemness, suggesting that COX-2 inhibitors hold great promise for cancer prevention and therapy.