Molecular Differences Between Left-Sided Colon and Rectal Cancers
This video examines a pair of studies that looked at molecular variances and clinical differences between left-sided colon and rectal cancers.
In this video, Mohamed E. Salem, MD, discusses a pair of studies presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held January 19–21 in San Francisco.
The first study looked at 1,457 primary colorectal cancers and examined molecular variances (abstract 522) between left-sided colon and rectal tumors, including differences in gene mutation frequency, protein expression, tumor mutational load, and microsatellite instability.
The second study (abstract 675) looked at clinical differences in patients with left-sided colon and rectal cancers and suggests that tumors in the rectum may carry distinct clinical characteristics.
