MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY AND COLORECTAL-CANCER

New technologies in molecular biology will allow the improvement of sc reening, diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. For ex ample the determination of germline mutation in APC or in mismatch rep air genes in patient with familial adenomatous polyposis or with HNPCC is now possible. The clinical surveillance can be restricted to the p atients with these germline defects. More over the knowledge of somati c genetic alterations in colorectal cancer cells seems to be useful in the determination of prognosis of these patients or in order to predi ct the chemotherapy response.