Colorectal carcinogenesis: from chromosomal evolution pathways to molecular pathogenesis

Since the mid-1980s, research in the field of colorectal carcinogenesis has seen a series of breakthroughs such, as the process of loss of heterozygosity for large chromosomal segments and the consequent characterization of a series of suppressor genes considered to be the targets of the allelic deletions. More recently, a new perspective has been opened, with the discovery of germinal mutations of genes involved in mismatch repair in certain inherited forms of the disease. Through the retrospective analysis of our data on colorectal adenomas and cancers, we have tried to critically reassess a number of theoretical considerations relating to the instability of the genome viewed at the chromosome level and its consequence on tumor progression.